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ATARI ID

The Resource for the ATARI CLASSIC and the ATARI ST

Issue 71 - April/May 1995

£2.50

FOR THE ATARI CLASSIC

O INTERRUPT!

Display List Interrupts and Vertical
Blank Interrupts - the full expose!

O DEMOS

A run-down of some fabulous
demos for the Classic

Swirling clouds of gas attack your Atari!

FOR THE ATARI ST

MAKING MUSIC

We explain how MIDI makes it
possible to transfer music be-
tween machines

DIZZM

rUIMTI ME"

LEFT HOUSE
in pi aw

RIGHT MOUSE
F OP HErl H

PUBLIC DOMAIN a first look at some of the Budgie range

PLUS,.- THE TIPSTER COMPLETES THE BRUNDLES MURPHY W YOUR ATARI „ MAMMOTH MAILBAG

Thanks

Inspiration

Bodo Jurss
Richard Gore
John Foskett
Andy Gtiillaume

Les Ellingham puts it all together and fills
up the gaps but the real thanks goes to the
following who made this Issue possible

Sandy Ellingham. who takes care of all the
office work, advertising and mail order

For their regular contributions

Joh n S Davison Stuart Murray

Paul ft Leon Me Bawngton

Ian Finlaysan Mark Stinson

Allan Jk Palmer The Tipster

For their contributions this issue

Daniel Havers tock Ann O'Driscoll
Joet GooduAn
Steve NlckUn
James Austin
Leslie Benson
Kevin Cooke

Special mentions to John Foskett and David
Sargeant who sent in several contributions
that will be featured in the next Jew issues ■
thanks guys!

Some of these folk have supported us from almost
the bcfftmilixg and without them we would not be
here. Some are having articles published for the first
time. Ail are to be thanked for sharing their enthu-
siasm with all whn mad fir.w Atari User

HOW IT'S DONE

PAGE C shows J list what you can do wtth your Atari.
NEWATAR] USER has always br.r.n created entirely vriih
Atari equipment Initially on the XL but mors latrry with
a Mega ST and other stuff, who needs PC's or Mars!
Hardware includes a Mega ST2 (upgraded to 4Mb).
SMI 25 Monitor. Supra 30Mb Hard Disk, u IIP LHWf)et
III. Cltlii*r> 124 ft printer. Philips CMB&33 monitor.
130XE. aeouple of 1050 disk drives. BSO interface, NEC
8023 printer. Principal software use.d 1s Pmtext and
Fleet Street F^JbLlshrr 3.0. Other software Includes Ker-
mlL TarlTiilk. Turbo Basic and tartous custom written
programs on the XL/XE- Articles submitted on XL/XE
disks are transferred across to the ST via TARITALK
Programs are coded on the XE ond printed out directly
(or pasting in after the typeaeLting is completed. All
major editing is done With Protest and pages are laid out
with Fleet Street Publisher. Each page Is output directly
from Fleet Street to a HP LaserJet HI which produces
finished pages exactly as you see them. All that Is left Is
to drop in the listings and photos.

Well. It's not quite "as easy as that but you get the Ideal

Weil uAial inspiration has then: been this issue?
Strangely not a lot. Much of this issue has been
completed in sUence as my young son has been quite
unwell and I hnj.w itrvi one ear open Jot him as tie
lies in tf «? otfW roonh The music lot has been
played has been virtually the same as last issue -
Mike Oldjteid, Mary Chopin-Carpenter. Ranrigbut I
did have a small wander Into some abler stuff. It
really started with the Woman's Heart CD which
inspired me to listen to same of the artists Jeatiireti
thereon. Maura. O'Connell wtvs strangely disappoint-
ing, I almost wondered why I bought tt t but Paul
Brady was infinejorm, especially with She Island.
Breaking auxigjrom Ireland I had a listen to Shirley
Collins and The Albion Country Band, The album
was iVo Roses and it still suitnds great after almost
25 years. Next time maybe I'll have one or tux> neto
stfunds to report on but Jot now I hObe Just had a
sudden desire to have a listen to Nic Jones' Penguin
Eggs. See you next time.

CONTRIB UTIONS

Without contributions from Its readers, NEW
ATARI USER would not be possible. PACE G wet -
■comes And encourages lis readers to submit,
articles, programs and reviews Jor publication.
Programs must be submitted on disk or cassette,
articles should wherever possible be submitted
as, text files on dt.sk. We seek to encourage your
participation and do not have strict rules jor
submissions. If something 1 interests you r write a
program or article and submit tt!

Ail original articles, programs and other macrrial in
NEW ATARI USER remain the copyright of ihe au-
thor as credited. All uncrcdltcd material is copyright
PAGE fi- Permission must be sought by anyone
Wishing lo republish any material, Whilst WC take
whatever steps we can to ensure the accuracy of
articles and prngrams ant! ihe contents of advertise-
ments, PAGE 6 cannot be held liable fur any errors
or claims made by advertisers,

ATARI I'TM) 1st a registered trademark ol ATARI CORP. AH
reference* should be so noted. NEW ATARI USER f»an
independent publication *od rw* no connection with Atari or
With any Other company or publisher.

Editorial address: P.O. Box 54, Stafford, ST16 1DR, ENGLAND Tel. Ql 785 213928
Editor & Publisher. Les Ellingham - Advertising: Sandy Ellingham
Page layout by PAGE 6 - Printed by Dolphin Press, Fife, Scotland 01592 771652
NEW ATARI USER is published bi-fnonlhly on the last Thursday of the month prior to cover date_

Page 6's New Atari User

PAGE 6 PUBLISHING'*

ATARI

"The Magazine for the
Dedicated Atari User'

ISSN Ho. 095^-7705

CONTENTS

Issue 71- April/May 1995

REGULARS

EDITORIAL

MAIL BAG

THE TIPSTER

CLASSIC PDZ0NE

TUTORIAL TIME

ACCESSORY SHOP

CONTACT

IBC

ST CORNER

MAKING MUSIC

Our MIDI tour concludes

ST PD ROUNDUP

Some of the more serious

Budgie software

ADVERTISERS

SAMS

MICRO DISCOUNT

FUTURA

DEAN GARRAGHTY

N0SAUG

PROGRAMS

ORSON/THE ORSON EDITOR

Our great disk bonus this issue

PLASMA

A hypnotic PC program Jor tl\e Atari

PROGRAMMING

DISPLAY LIST INTERRUPTS

Much: easier than you thought

LET'S WRITE A VBI 2S

An in-depth tutorial Jor improved, programs

HOW DO THEY DO THAT? 3*7

Trie start of a new column?

FEATURES

DEMOS - WHY BOTHER? 12

Wiiat's the real purpose of Classic demos?

FM PROUD! 26

A 14 year-old Classic owner tells you why

MURPHY'S VARIATIONS 44

A look at computer problems

The next Issu* of NEW ATARI USER is due to be published on 3 1st Sfajf
Editorial copy date Is 30lh April

SUBSCRIPTIONS

MAGAZINE ONLY DISK SUBSCRIPTION

Annual subscription rates (6 issues)'

UK £15.00

Europe {Air Mail) £17.00

E Isewherv (S urface} El 7.00

Elsewhere (Air Mail) £23.00

Overseas rales r&tioct only lbs difference in
postal costs

Please moke cheques payable to PAGE 6 PUBLISHING and send to
PAGE 6 Publishing P.O. Box 54, Stafford* ST16 1DR

A disk containing all of trie 8-bit programs from **clt
issue of NEW ATARI USER is available either uparati
|y or on subscription. Single price C2.9E. per disk, a
disk sJjsdriptkan save* you almost £6 a year. Sub-
scription ratHA (8 iuuee)

UK £25,00

Europe £32.00

Elsewhere (sea) £32.00

Elsewhere (Air) £42.00

"Editorial

THANKS!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank youl LasL Issue's appeal for more contributions brought forth a
great response with several top quality articles and one or two readers submitting a whole host
of exciting things on the one disk. We have got some good things coming up for you in the next
few issues but please don't think that we have everything we need. It takes a wide variety of
articles and programs to keep New Atari User Interesting and wc need your continuing InpuL
We need more programs, especially games which seem to be a bit thin on the ground now, so
get programming. If you check out the articles this issue on display list and vertical blank
Interrupts you should be able to polish up that program that you thought might not be quite
good enough and send it In for others to enjoy r Do it now!

THE NEW FORMAT

After the initial letters of praise at the brave decision to go to a smaller format we have had
one or two dissenting letters in recent weeks which have complained about, the smaller type
size used. What smaller type size? As I have said before the type size is exactly the same. That
was one of the most Important considerations In designing the new layout. The typeface is 8
point Bookman Light on a 10 point base and that is exactly what. I have been using for the past
five years. If it appears smaller to some folk it must be an optical illusion.

Several readers have said that they miss the printed listings. One of the reasons for dropping
them is that the new format makes it quite difficult to get listings in two columns on one page
and if only one column Is used any listing will take up twice as many pages. This issue 1 have
tried to address the situation with a type-in listing in the magazine which has been printed
with a condensed typeface, I hope that it works, and if it docs wc may be able to have more
listings tn the future.

AMS

The Spring AMS Is upon us again and you will see an advertisement opposite. Although it
contains a coupon to clip for reduced admission, the organisers have said that they are
quite happy to accept photocopies or even far you to fake along your mag and show it
at the doer for the reduced price. No need to spoil the magazine.

This time the show has fallen at an awkward time for us as we have another important event
on the following two days. We will be at SAMS but not with our usual stand so please don't
expect the usual display. If there is something special you want, some PD disks for example,
you must phone first to let us know so that we can bring it along.

Pa&? 6's New Atari User

Lts Tldngkmn

Special Offer from the publishers of

NEW ATARI USER

Bring this voucher with you and gain entry to

The

Spring J^tt ]\/ficro $how

Radio Rally & Electronics Fair

Saturday 1 5 April 1 995

10.00am - 4.00pm

Bingley Hall, Staffordshire Showground
Weston Road, Stafford

off the A5 18 Stafford * UttoxeLer Road * sign pasted from J1 4 on M6
Bus Shuttle from Stafford BR

FOR ONLY

£1.50

* Full Adult Entry Fbb £2.50 without voucher LU

Name . Q

O
<

LU
CL

Address

Postcode Q

I-

l~l / do not wish to receive details of future, Shows/Radio Kallies 2"

Mailbag

Hailing
Frequencies
Open!

Sub-space communi*
cations have been
re-es tablls hed!

After last issue's small
helping of mail I'm
pleased to report that
this time around the
mailbag looks healthier.
I hope this trend con-
tinues. Without more
ado, on to the letters

Allan *J. Palmer

BLITTERCHIPS

AU REVOIR
BUT NOT GOODBYE

We have mentioned a shop
called Blttberchips in recent
issues who offered support
for the Atari Like almost
everyone they have con*
across a Jem problems and
have asked its to print the
fallowing letter.

Dear Editor/Subscribers,
I am writing this letter to
your good selves as to the
current position of Butter-
chips.

As many people are aware
Blitterchips is a small com-
pany set up in Stourbridge to
provide the local and wide-
spread users of video games
consoles and computers with
an authoritative and informa-
tive alternative to the high
street shops who generally
are not very helpful.

Sadly, whilst tilitterchips is
a viable business and has
been for the last two years or
so. I have decided to close the
shop premises at 1 15A J
Bridgnorth Road H Wollaston,
This was not an easy decision
but. nonetheless, one which I
felt was necessary, The
reasons are many fold and,
unfortunately, outweigh the
good reasons for remaining
open. In brief, adverse factors
such as rising costs and par-
ticularly the vandalism Ikctor
which again in turn increases
costs [Insurance, repairs etc J
have force this closure.

Page 6's New Atari User

1 would like to point out.
however, that we are by no
means beaten and shall con-
tinue to operate from market
stalls and by mail order. We
shall, more than ever, prom-
ote Atari products and en-
deavour to persuade more
people to subscribe to the ex-
cellent magazines such as
NAU,

A final note to all the people
who sent orders for the Star-
fighter 1 Joypad and won-
dered what had happened.
My sincere apologies for the
delay in despatching these
items to you. All orders will
have been fulfilled by the
time this letter is published.
All goods are guaranteed and
should anyone have any diffi-
culties please return the
offending Items to the
address below for immediate
replacement For general en-
quiries plea.se ring the tele-
phone number given at any
time.

Again may I thank the team
at Page 6 for their assistance
and may we all look forward
to a brighter future together.
And a special thank you to
the hundreds of customers
that supported Blitterchips
through this difficult period.
Keith Hughes. Blitterchips.

c/a20 Collett Close,
Penfields, Stourbridge,
West Midlands DYS4IIS.
Tel 01384 823457

t ft is always sad when
someone who is trying to sup-
port the A tari has problems.
Let" s hope that things get bet-
ter for us all in 1995> Ed.

CONTRIBUTORS,
& HOWFEN DOS

Stan Shearing writes from
Sou* hail, Middx. (an area I
used to know well when I
was a youngster - back in the
dark ages B.C. - Before Com-
puter!}. First Stan makes the
following observation:
"I would like to endorse
Frank Atkin s comments in
issue 68 re Dave Richardson,
for whom nothing seems to
be too much trouble/'
Thanks, Stan - it's good to
know that tfiere are plenty of
reliable and helpfid Atadans
like Dave alxtut However,
Stan does continue H l regret
this does not seem to apply
to one of the NAU regular
contribu tors (who shall re-
main nameless) - hoping for a
quick fix I wrote to this gen-
tleman (enclosing a SAE) in
February "94 - 1 may have
asked a silly question, but he
could at least have sent me a
silly answer

T (Well, thats got lis all thinh
ing Stan about who tlxe guilty
party is. Chances are it's
probably me! Ed.}

On la problems from Stan,
who has "...attempted to use
Dave Sargeant's File Scgmcn-
ter (issue 66J to break up the
docs on SuperDOS.S without
success, 1 found the first seg-
ment overflowed the buffer in
my word processor (AtariWri-
ter), but segment 2 consisted
of only 2 lines] i decided line
120 "BS1ZE" could be the one

to alter and made it 10240.
but nothing seemed to work -
I still overflowed, I am now
wondering if my 65XE has
too small a memory to use
the program

T J haven't had a chance to
experiment with this utility
yet Start, so urfortunaiely
carYt give you an answer.
Maybe one of our readers can
help? I don't believe you
should have a problem with a
65XK

Stan has also been using
the HOWFEN tape to disk
transfer utility from Stuart
Murray's Futura 4 disk. "I
successfully transferred
Snooker and Pool, Airstrikc II
and Missile Command.
Flushed with success, I
thought it would be nice to
have more than one game per
disk r so I loaded DOS 2,5 to
look at the directory, and
that is my problem -
although the games boot and
play perfectly, all that shows
in the directory is "000 FREE
SECTORS". It isn't really a
crisis, but it. is intriguing -
any answers?"

* I'm not sure what your
objective was Stan, but in
terms of the directory display.
I'm sure this is the result of
using DOS 2.5 to examine a
non-DOS 2.5 disk. The HOW-
FEN utility doesn't use stan-
dard Atari DOS, so instead of
finding the Atari DOS direc-
tory beginning at sector 3G0 r
DOS 2.5 finds whatever the
HOWFEN format has put
there. Le. the HOWFEN direc-
tory ts in a different place.
Page 6's New Atari User

Are there any HOWFEN ex-
perts out there who can sup-
ply mane details? Perhaps
you'd like to ttse a Sector Edi-
tor, Stan to examine the disk
and let us know what, you
make of the format?

INK-JETS and
KEYBOARDS

Our self-styled WJ\.C.O.
(that's Wacky Atari Classic
Owner} M- Tomlin from Basil-
dan in Essex sends the fol-
lowing:

"I read your answer to me in
Page 6 s Mailbag on the refill-
ing of ink-jet printers.
Thanks, but I have been fill
ing it with normal Parker bot-
tle ink which has worked well
- SO far 6 times but I think I
will have to buy a new car-
tridge soon as the cartridge is
showing Signs of wear now.
It's been a lot cheaper than
the refill kits you advised me
to buy,

1 would like to ask - are all
P,C. Computer Keyboards the
same, i.e. will a keyboard
from one P.C, work on
another, 1 recently got a PC,
which works, from a boot
sale for £ 1 0 but which is
without a keyboard. It has a
7 pin (Din type] connector on
the rear where the keyboard
should plug in, 1 have never
used a PC ... yet. 1 "

T Well, M - not being a con-
noisseur of PC hardware, I'm
uncertain as to the compatibil-
ity of PC keyboards, but I sus-

pect that you should find
them faldy interchangeable.
Then? may be the occasional
odd discrepancy - I believe
the keyboard for the Acorn
RISC-PC has one key (the ver-
tical straight line - whatever
that's coiled) that doesn't
match with the "standard" PC
conjfyuratiorh There's prob-
ably a conftejwattpn program
within the, PC operating sys-
tem Jor configuring the
keyboard (US us UK, etcj> In-
cidentally, I seem to have re-
collections of adverts in the
U.S. Atari magazines- of the
1960s for PC keyboards with
Atari interface connections

A subsequent letter from
M. Tomkn confirms that he
has continued to have suc-
cess using his Commodore
MPS 1270A ir\k-Jet printer
with his Atari A £2.20 botde
of black Parker ink has
allowed him to re-fill the car-
tridge 14 times before it has
refused to work (possibly
from a build-tip of stale ink?}.
"Waco'' Tomlin identifies that
his Commodore MPS 1270 A
"»». prints the pound symbol
with its dip switches set as
follows:

ON = 3, 4, 6, 7, 8

OFF - L 2. 5
Using the hash symbol in
Tex (Pro, Speed Script or Mini
Office U word processors pro-
duces the pound symbol
when printed, it works very
well with every piece of PD
software I have tried from the
Page 6 PD Library including
all versions of Daisy Dot, The
only program I find that this

printer will not work with is
the Label maker utility from
Mini O ffice II. Also on the
subject of printers, will a
laser printer work with a
8-bit system?"

T lite arisLuer Mr T is H Ycs H it
can!" I refer to the fit\al issue
of BenPoehland's late, la-
mented Atari Classics maga-
zine {vol 3 fno 2 AprU 1994}.
In the "Wild FONTter" column,
Daisy Dot 3 expert David
Richardson reports that he
w *..has an Epson Action Laser
1 500 printer. It has built-in
Epson FX LQ, etc. printer
emulation* By using the con-
trol panel on the laser printer
you can set it to think that it
is an old Epson dot-matrix
printer, and then you can
hook it up through either its
serial or paraltd printer port."
So if you happen to have a
laser lying around, why not
try it with your Atari Classic?

•* "Waco" also reports that he
has problems nuvning the
MegoHaUs demo disc on his
130XE - any ideas?

DISKS AND
DISK BOXES

Partner to enquiries about
sources /or 5¥i" disks and stor-
age boxes, D J lontton (I hope
I've deciphered your name
correctlyi of Wivenhoe, Essex
suggests MapUn Electninics
as a supplier. "There's over
30 stores nationwide and
they operate a mail-order ser-
Page G's New Atari User

vice, and you'll find their
catalogue in your local
branch of W.I I. Smith.*

T Thanks for the information
DJ, {Historical note here;
back in 1981. Maplm Electro-
nics were one of the first re-
tailers ii\ the U.K. of the (then
new) Atari 400 and Atari 8O0
Home Computer Systems,
and built up a large range of
imported software for the
Classic A tart I

REPAIRS &
ST CONTENT

Ted Sole from Ormskirk,
Lanes writes that he has
,r ... owned an Atari 8-bit for
nine years and it still holds
my Interest, My main con-
cern being if it should need
repairing. Is there a firm that
offers repairs?"

T As far as I'm aware Ted,
there's no commercial firm
that will repair the Classic
Atari; however, this subject
has been covered in past
Maillxigs - off the top of my
}\ead, among tl)e people to get
In touch with are Derek Fern
at Micro discount Sid Berry
and the TWA UG gang. You
shoiddfind details in past
issues.

•o Ted also observes "Now
that two more ST magazines
have j^onc. how long before
there are none? I also own a
STE - will NAU give more cov-
erage in the future?"

T That's a question for our
esteemed editor and pub-

lisher - perhaps it may even
be time for some sort of Read-
ers' Poll?

ATARI CLASSIC
AND PC

Talking about PC keyboards
leads us on to this letter from
Philip M. Brown in Ipswich
Suffolk;

"Sad as it may be. it seems
that the demise of the Atari
8-bit and therefore of New
Atari User, creeps ever closer,
the number of cheap second-
hand power supply units and
various other items associ-
ated with the XL and XE
machines to be found in bar-
gain bins of certain computer
stores testifies to this fact. It
appears that the ST too will
soon follow the path to obli-
vion. I have greatly enjoyed
using my second-hand
800XL and always look for-
ward to the arrival of New
Atari User in the post, so I
will be very sorry if it all
comes to an end. However, I
believe there is a way to ex-
tend the life of the Atari Clas-
sic, When I can afford it, I
would like to purchase an
IBM -compatible PC. The
problem is that, being a wri-
ter of science -fiction (unpub-
lished as yet). 1 have about a
quarter of a million words on
numerous Mini Office flies
that I would like to convert,
not to mention database files.
Now I am sure there must be
a great number of people like
me, not really interested in

games, who use their Classic
Ataris for serious work.
Therefore it would be a great
advantage to be able to trans-
fer files to an IBM clone, or
perhaps obtain the hardware
to allow the Atari Classic to
emulate the IBM-"'
T Well this seems to be a
"hot" item at the moment
Although I thmk you"oeoot it
the wrong ivay round in your
last sentence What is avail-
able now is the ability to emu-
late our Wlaved Atari Classic
on an IBM-compatible PC, not-
oWy using the PC Xformer
software. I believe the guys at
TWAUG have already started
experimenting with £hts and
Dean Garraghty may also
have experience of this. With
the ability to use a laser prin-
ter as described in my re-
sponse to M. Tomlin, tlie Atari
Classic and the PC seem to
becoming quite friendlyt Has
anyone out there got to the
pomt where they can produce
a good in-depth article on the
extended I ife of the Atari
Classic on a PC platform?

AU TOOLKIT
and MONITORS

Regular correspondent Brad
Rogers from Southampton
notes; " One additional benefit
of the reduced size {of N AU] is
that the postman can now
actually post the magazine
through my letterbox rather
than leaving it on the door-
step, I have a disk subs crip -

Page 6's New Atari User

tlon, so the larger envelope
with DO NOT BEND printed
on it meant it wouldn't go
through the letterbox! 41
Brad continues with obser-
vations on recently asked
questions:

"In issue 70, Brian Arnold
asked about the AU Too I Kit -
he wanted to know if it was
possible to transfer this suite
from cassette to disk - 1 be-
lieve that most of the utilities
were started as AUTO RUN
files. If this is the case then it
is not as easy as copying
from cassette to disk and re-
naming as AUTORUN.SYS
because the startup code re-
quired for cassette or disk
boot is different.

Peter Foote wanted to know
what monitors can be used
with the Atari Classic - any
with a Composite Video input
and, optionally k audio. Per-
sonally I use a Philips CM883
Mk II. but these are becom-
ing hard to find since Philips
no longer make them. Alter-
natively, any TV with a
SCAKT socket should do
since the full implementation
of that standard includes
both Composite and RGB In/
outputs/'

7 Thanks again for yow
feedback. Brad.

MEMORY and
BETA LYRAE

From Baltymoney in Co.
Antrim, N. Ireland, Nigel
Henry reports that he has

"...recently upgraded my
800XL to 256K with the Wlzz-
tronics upgrade (from Micro -
Discount), a project which I
thoroughly enjoyed. The
main reason for my upgrade
was so that I could transfer
large tape programs to disk
using TransDisk IV, This has
been a very successful pro-
ject with 90% of all my prog-
rams now running from disk.
However, It does seem like a
bit of a waste to have 256K of
memory and only use It with
one application. I was won-
dering If there were any in-
teresting applications where I
could make better use of the
increased memory? I know
that I can now use a (large)
RAMdlsk to speed up opera-
tions, but are there any prog-
rams That can use the extra
memory to its full potential?"
T You've identified the reason
why I haven't upgraded my
Classic A tari's memory capac-
ity - what can it be used for?
It's the aid problem noone is
going to deuelop an applica-
tion using increased memory
unless they know its got a
wide enough audience to dis-
tribute it to ... Open invitation
to all readers - tell us about
applications which make jvil
use of enhanced memory on
the Classic AtarU

1 On the down side of mem-
ory upgrades, Nigel boug}tt
and successfully played Tiie
Tail of Beta. Ijyrae' (re-re-
viewed, in issue 66) before he
upgraded his 800XL memory,
The review states that the
program will run on all Atar-

is; however it refused to run
on a friend's 130XE - the
program loads fine > bu I when
ft finished loading nothing
happened. After my memory
upgrade, it behaved the same
way on my 800XL. Does any-
one have any idea why this
might happen? All my other
programs work perfectly "
T Well you have me puzzled
there, Nigel - 1 ivould expect
the game to run on a 130XE,
but Its not one I've ever tried;
can someone confirm the sta-
tus of this?

■* While mentioning Trans-
Disk IV above, Nigel w , ..would
like to thank Raphael Espino,
whose letter in issue 68
prompted me to obtain a
copy of issue 61< where his
solution to transferring files
in Enhanced Density works
pcrfecUy!"

DOS to BASIC?

From Salisbury, Wiltshire,
Dennis Fogerty has a conun-
drum: 1 know that I can
move from BASIC ro DOS by
POKEing location 1 0 16, 1 and
pressing RESET: but I have
yet to discover how I can re-
turn to BASIC from this state
- that dreaded message "No
cartridge" always comes up.
When I am using Turbo
BASIC, together with MEM-
.SAY, 1 can return from DOS
to BASIC by running at mem-
ory location 2080. My ques-
tion is - is due re an address
in DOS 2,5 which will trans-
Page 6's New Atari User

fer me back to BASIC with
Just a few keypresses?"'
T Hmmm ».< / think we're
stretching things a bit here -
the POKE 1016.1 disables the
BASIC ROM, SO any subse-
quent attempt to reload
BASIC must involved re-set-
ting the flag to indicate that
the BASIC ROM is auaHable r „

MAG STORAGE
and DEVON USERS

Kevin Cooke (another of our
regular correspondents} Jrom
Exeter* Devon has the follow-
ing comment on storing his
new format NAU Issues: "For
the cost of a few A5 plastic
sleeves (currently selling @
7Sp for 10 in my loeal W.H.
Smith) and a ring binder, the
new format NAUs can be
effectively stored in a neat
and tidy way. I have also
found that this helps to keep
the magazines flat and pre-
vents the covers from getting
turned up comers."

Kevin also asks: "..are the 1 re
ANY other Atari 8-bittcrs
close to Devon who tt;ad Page
6 and might be interested in
meeting occasionally to swap
hints and tips, give program-
ming help> repair hardware,
or even to play games
against? I know of no-one
who owns any sort or 8-bit
computer let alone an Atarit
if anyone is Interested, they
can contact me at 36 Buddie
Lane, St, Thomas. Exeter.
Devon EX4 UH. ,h

T Good kick Kevin - it'll he
interesting to discover if
there's a pocket of Atarinns
down in the South-Went.

1050 PROBLEMS

Finally, u>e have a plea for
help from Dennis Hedges of
Southampton:

"My 1050 just keeps switch-
ing on and off all the time.
Not the power supply, Just
the drive. I had a look inside
but all looks to be OK. I live
in hope."

• What words of advice can
the NAU readership offer?

And that wraps up another
Mailbag column! I hope to see
a continued chain of com-
munication for next Issuer In
the meantime, what can I
ramble on about to fill up the
rest of the page? Ah yes, I'm
compiling this just a couple of
days after seeing "Star Trek'
Generations" at the cinema -
I've got to admit I was a bit
wary of this, Jee\ ing it would
be somevjhat shambled
together and wondered if it
could retain the atmosphere

of tlie excellent 'Next Genera-
tion" TV series. I was very
pleasantly surprised - this
movie is very well done, mak-
ing great use of various bits of
the Star Trek background that
have sprung up over the
years and filled in some of
tlie gapSr It Is very well-paced
and consideristg the number
of principal diameters,
eviyone gets a chance to take
centre stage (albeit sometimes
briefly). T\\ere is drama and
there Is humour with a (as
always) superb performance
from Patrick Stewart and
(some might say surprisingly)
a fine final portrayal of James
Tiberius Ktrk by William Shat-
ner. Tiie special effects are
magnificent (the space
scenes, the astro-cartography
chamber, and urhai they do to
tl\e Entetprise-D tn the finale),
but they don't take the film
away from the actors. As you
might guess from the preced-
ing, I UKED this film. - my
only question Is: what are
they going to do for the next
sequel?

That's all for this time,
"Beam me up, Scotty!"

Air your views on all things Atari or help your
fellow users with their queries - even ask for
help yourself. It's all interesting, if only you
write it down* Here's the address;

MAILBAG
NEW ATARI USER
P.O. BOX 54, STAFFORD
ST16 1TB

BACK
ISSUES

Back issues of
NEW ATARI USER
are still available
from ISSUE 32
up to ISSUE 70

except for
the following

ISSUE 35 - SOLD OUT

ISSUE
DISKS

All issue disks
from ISSUE 14
ONWARDS are
still available

JVEW/

ISSUE DISKS

12 and 13
now available!

Check the Accessory
shop order form for
further details
and prices

Page 6's New Atari User

Features

and

Daniel Baverstock
explores that strange
computer phenomenon
- the demo -from the
collector's viewpoint

The World of the DEMO crew. Popu-
lated by strange people with Atari
8-Dits and square eyes with nothing
better to do than sit around in partial trances
typing in endless lists of numbers which
apparently make sense to them.

Usually to obtain recognition, these groups
give themselves a name. It can be anything
from hip sounding names like "Copy Crew
Amsterdam' to 'Gizmo magic\ from 'Gnome
Design' to The World Federation of Mad
Hackers'- In addition to a group name, these
strange people often give themselves an alias
Sometimes named after monsters, cartoon
characters or computer jargon; Frankenstein.
tJartman, Be c man, Prizm. Detail. Lord of
Darkness, and Stormtrooper! Careful obser-
vation has concluded that this could be be-
cause they either want an exciting sounding
alter ego upon which they can place the

WHY BOTHER?

blame if anything goes wrong or because they
have awful sounding or unpronounceable
name in the first place! Then again, of course,
It maybe neither.

Demo crews spend their free time trying to
work together on ideas, compiling the various
parts on computer, de -bugging, rewriting and
arguing, until one day they emerge Into the
light with most of their initial idea intact and
finally on disk. Then somebody leaves it on a
radiator, turning it into a globby mess, there-
by forcing them to start all over again!
Another 6 months pass and they again
emerge, short of one unfortunate team mem-
ber, [well they had to eat something!),, and
blood pressure higher than that of a I 10 year
old's after competing in the London
marathon! They have finished their megadc-
mof

WHY DO THEY DO IT?

Why do programmers program demos? You
can't play them like a game, and the appeal
doesn't last long after you have watched It
once or twice. After all, all demos on Atari are
the same aren't they? Once youve seen one
you've seen them all? Well, perhaps so in
some cases, but demos, especially megade-
mos. do have seme lasting appeal and are
surprisingly very important for the Atari
8-Bit!

Why? The word demo is actually an abbre-

viation for DEMONSTRATION, Yes, it's true!
Demos introduce new techniques, faster ways
of accomplishing a task, and memory saving
tips. They introduce other programmers and
owners to new effects, such as better sound
and graphic displays. They are like an infor-
mation medium through which new develop-
ments are shared and where groups can send
'Grcetinx' to other groups and the rest of the
Atari owning community. It's also a great
opportunity to show ofR
Through making demos programmers of
games and utilities and hardware freaks can
produce better programs for the Atari. You
can see the benefits by looking at games that
were programmed in the early 1980's like the
unbelievably 4.*!$$! Bounty Bob games, then
look at games like Draconus, Zy bcx , and the
new T-34 tank battle, especially the title
screens, music and sound FX, Same compu-
ter, far more advanced and new found techni-
ques. These are most likely to have been In-
spired by demos, as well as other games.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF
NEW DEVELOPMENTS

More and more demos are using digitised
music and sound effects. Relatively recently
stereo sound upgrades were Introduced to the
Atari, and so demos started to take advantage
of this. One such de mo Is the World of Won-
ders, a mono sample and chip music demo
co lice! ion convened to stereo.

Memory upgrades Introduced In the last five
years have opened up new avenues for demos
and games. Although programmers do still
tend to stick to 64 K limitations, leaving out
the extra 64K that the 1 30XE allows and even
more with 256 K computers. These enhance-

ments will allow bigger games with impressive
intro- screens, containing more graphic detail,
animation and sampled sounds. Aside from
demos, Ke-Softs Brundles makes use of
memory upgrades and so does the PD game
Megablast.

Compression techniques allow far greater
demos on smaller capacity machines, and
take up less disk space and accessing time. In
fact most of the megademos use compression,
some continually throughout the demo. This
is used la great effect in the Dancing lady
demo from the World Federation of Mad
Hackers' The Top megademo.

CREATING SOMETHING
ORIGINAL

For a while demos had become too similar
and unoriginal, To a certain extent this is still
the case. The most common demo style is the
horizontal scroller with music and images
scrolling past, and coloured DLI bars in the
background. After the initial effects are in-
c luded in a demo, any future demos lose their
appeal and excitement, leaving only greetings
to read. Many demos, however, arc extremely
original, especially Megademos which contain
a varied amount of demos -wi thin -demos.
Bach loads and unpacks a stage at a time,
some linked, some unique in the collection.

The Top Megademo from the disbanded
WFMI I has three parts each with around six
to seven demos. One crams over 400K of
digitised data into 128K. and continually
packs and unpacks it In real lime. It also
informs you that 5 12 colours are possible on
screen at the same time, contrary to the 256
colour limit. It has a good sampled tune or
two and has a great demo in which 25-30

Greetinxto HAB&SOFF, ABBUC, POKEY, HUREK, CIA, GIZMO MAGIC, THE GERMAN CRACK® ARTISTS, THE GERMAN CHAOTICS. TACF, XLSOFT, VETERANS OF WFMH, SHADOWS* BWQDY

GNOME DESIGN and TO FRANKENSTEIN, MAGNUS, PRlZtf SOLAR SYS, THORGAL, THE EXTERMINATOR, THE UNKNOWN BASE, SOW CODER, SPY HUNTER,

Paffe B's New Atari User

Page 6's New Atari User

scrollers arc on screen at the same time, The
Top Part 3 introduces a great reflection tech-
nique to give the impression of a glass sur-
face, mixing colour and hi res text together.

Excellent megademos like the Cool Emotion
demo from Hungary's Hard soft, or the Sweet
Illusion megademo programmed by now
Amiga crew the Shadows include some mind-
blowing new effects. The Pigl /chip music on
the Cool Ejuotiun demo is great, as are the
Sweet Illusion demo's shaded revolving poly-
gons* moving much faster than previous
attempts at 3D animation and light sourcing.

USING SAMPLED SOUND

Demos have shown us that three samples
can be played at the same time, and that the
screen display can remain on during sample
play. In addition, sampled sound is mixed
with chip music The last few demos on the
Unity Project have a great tune, and the
Vocab demo on the NOSAUG voL 1 has a good
mix with two drums, cymbals and claps
amongst average chip music. Again 1 have to
mention Hardsoft's Cool Emotion demo for
great sampled sound.

Module sampled flies converted from other
machines are also creeping into demos, Fri-
day-Soft's Fampy files especially. Another
mod player has one of the best MOD files I've
heard, the FYC song "She Drives Me Crazy",
l^ong samples seem to have been Included in
Megademos, the most well known are those
on the Big Demo, some say the best demo. 1
would have to disagree, placing it in fourth
place after Sweet Illusion, The Top Megademo
and Cool Emotion. The Phantasy Demo is
supposed to be very good, totalling five techno
tracks, two requiring 128K, and the new
G Tracker demo disk contains some good

techno tracks.

Other extremely good demos and Megade-
mos available include the Hurtle Demo Col-
lection vol. 2 available from NOSAUG, which
has a great International Karate Plus anima-
tion demo, and a Hi -res demo that mixes two
colour pictures together. The NOSAUG PD
demo vol. 1 HIT/ WFMH isn't as good* but it
is worth having in your collection,

VISUAL EFFECTS

Colour plasma effects and pixel plotters are
the latest phase which demos seem to be
going through, and some look great.

Visdom and Visdom II single demos have
some of the most amazing colour effects used
in demos. Visdom for example, has an excel-
lent colour wave that washes over the top of
the demo screen. Visdom II has absolutely
amazing colour ripple, patterns of colour with
the same effect shown by those oil ornaments
you find in weird shops in seaside towns!

The Unity Project has a great demo in
which graphics modes 8. 9, and 15 are dis-
played on the same scan line, with a great
lune and ocean blue scroller. This wasn*t
commonly thought possible until this demo.
1 lobbyTronlc 92 is another worth having for
ifs small yet interesting effects.

The Halle Project, (f lobbyTronlc 19931, is
also one to recommend, starling with a top
notch long sample with the credits. Play It
through your Hi-Fi to really hear this one,
although turning up the monitor volume still
sounds great. 1 mainly recommend the Halle
Project because it contains Visdom R\ the
excellent sampled Intro and a Fampy mod file,
Crystal Hammer, The majority of the other
demos have some nice effects, but nothing
spectacular.

HARD TO FIND DEMOS

One demo IVe desperately tried to get my
hands on is the Intel Outside demo. Among
many other mindblowing effects, it is said to
have an excellent 3D cube with a picture
texture-mapped onto the sides. However. 1
was informed that It wasn't to be available as
it Infringed a copyright, or something to that
eAect. Another hard to find demo is the prede-
cessor to Hungarian demo team Hard Soft's
Cool Emotion Demo, Veronika.

A bargain buy 3 would recommend is the
Double Demo Pack 2 available from ANG
software. It includes the excellent double
Sided Sweet Illusion demo from the excellent
Shadows team. Bitter Reality and Ray of
Hope, Costing around £2 this is real value for
money.

ONE-OFF DEMOS

Impressive single semen demos can be
equally as impressive as megademos,
although not as Jong lasting. Shiny Bubbles
is a great 10 frame animation of rotating
spheres on a landscape and looks great. As
does Video blitz, a landscape of disks and
pools of water wlzzing past. Both run on 128K
machines only. Compy Shop is one demo
comprised of several parts, around nine or so
which reside in 128K. This Is one of the first
demos I purchased, and is well worth having
In a demo collection.

WHERE AND WHO?

Most demos and megademos come from
Europe, mainly Poland, Germany and Hol-

land, while very few come from the UK. As far
as I know none have emerged from the USA,
Canada and Australia. TTiere are as men-
tioned earlier, joint efforts every so often
which produce some good megademos, [Halle
Project. Unity Project Big Demo, The Great
British Demo Collection), Many UK produced
demos appear on UK disk based magazines.
Apart from it being very rewarding to design
and complete a demo, these programmers
and groups certainly provide an important
link between contemporary programmers,
teams, and all Atari owners. They are almost
as important as programming games.

THE FUTURE

I would like to see a development in the use
of samples, both in music and FX, and
perhaps of higher quality than the G-Skhz
samples currently used. ( l6khz) P Also more
3D Riled vector demos, perhaps showing
actual objects, a craft for example. Some
great animations and sequences would really
be excellent. I would also like to see demos
utilising 130XE more often. I am sure there
are just as many of them as there arc 64 K
machines.

Strangely, almost all demos are PD. or sold
for the cost of the disk and postage only.
Therefore the demo crews and programmers
have virtually no financial gain from making
these demos. Just shows you how strange
they all are, doesn't it?

CODERS, THE COMTECH CREW, HIT, HUREK, AURA, CSS, DTT* COPY CREW AMSTERDAM, FRIDAY- SQFT t BENJI SOFT, iWVC, BRAIN SOFT, QUR£0FT t TOP CREW, DIGITAL COMPVTING, LJL AVAWN,

BEEMAN. ANGEL, CINQ, LUCIFER* HAWK, ARC STQRMTR0OPER, WW OF DARKNESS, THE KNOWN LINK, TOMQHAWK, ELECTRON, and ALL OTHER CREWS and PROGRAMMERS

page 6*s New Atari User

Page 6's New A tari User

DISPLAY LIST

Ann O'Driscoll
expands on her earlier
article on Display
Lists to show how you
can use interrupts to
enhance your prog-
rams, even if you no
nothing of machine
language

I wrote an article on Display Lists in Issue
67 of New Atari User - what they were,
how to modify them, and so on. At the
time. I didn't include anything on display list
Interrup ts as 1 thought that it would be better
to concentrate on the basics, The programs
and notes here are an attempt to fill the gap. [
hope to show that display list interrupts are
not at all complicated to act up and run:
Essentially all you have to do ts modify a few
memory locations and incorporate a machine
code routine in your BASIC program-

WHAT IS AN INTERRUPT?

An "interrupt" is a system used by the com-
puter to halt an operation and do something
else. The two kinds of interrupt that most
people have heard of are the Vertical Blank
Interrupt and the Display List Interrupt. A
Vertical Blank Interrupt [VB1) is a routine
which is run in the time It takes the electron
beam which scans the screen to get from the
bottom right corner back up to the top left
corner - about 1/50 second. The operating
system uses the vertical blank interval to up-
date the timers and other memory locations,
and user- written routines can be run in addi-
tion to these "system" interrupts. For inst-
ance, VBIs arc often used to play background
music in a program.

A Display List Interrupt fDLI] causes the
screen display to temporarily stop processing
in order to run a machine code routine sup-
plied by the programmer. This type of inter-
rupt fs activated when the Antic chip finds a
special instnictton in the display list. Unlike
the VBI t you only have a relatively short time
(depending on the graphics mode) to run a
display list iiUtrn-upt. Because ol this, DLEb
are used for small routines like changing
screen colour or Graphics mode.

SETTING IT UP

To set up a display list interrupt you must:
- Write a DU machine code routine and
put it into memory

Page 6's New Atari User

RRUPTS

Tell the computer where to find the
routine

Change the display list for the linc(s)
where you want the Interrupt to hap-
pen, and

Enable the interrupt (i.e. tell Antic
you're using a DLI]

THE MACHINE CODE
ROUTINE

You don't have to be an experienced
machine code programmer to set up a DU
routine; you just need to get the hang of a
couple of concepts r

First, the accumulator. This (s the Atari
processor's main regis ter h or place where
numbers are stored and manipulated. The
machine code language instruction 169
[assembly language mnemonic LDA} fol-
lowed by a number loads the accumulator
with the number. The instruction 141
(mnemonic STA] stores ihc contents of the
accumulator in a memory location speci-
fied by the two bytes after the instruction.

Second the stack. This is the group of
memory addresses from 256 to 5 1 1 (page
1 of memory). Like the accumulator, data
can be written to and read Irom the stack
using machine language commands. The
instruction 72 (mnemonic PIIAJ pushes the
contents of the accumulator onto the 3tack-
The instruction 104 (mnemonic PLA) takes a
number from the top of the stack and puts it
in the accumulator. The slack works on a last

MSPLftV LIST IHTEf:PliPT ttl

uf-sii-e i-m tekt —

If 111 REM
II m REM _
OY ill REN

CI ill ClimCS l:»L=KEKC5i»*25t«EEKK

II]

FJ 116 REN RCId the wchiue code routine

RH 117 REN intfl mmftf at location 153*
0 J ill REN OflWrdS

IN 121 FOR N-l TD 7: HE Aft I : POKE 153i*R,B!
IEHT R

flJ 131 UU 72 J 1M J J I 141, 1,212,114,14

Cl ill REM The K flutters twan the mm

ilf..

ON 132 HEM 7Z=FRI PUSh aCCUMlatBf tlttfl S

tack

IK 133 REN 1&5-LDA Load the accumlitor v

ith...

KG 134 REN <=Hfi*ef for ■psidedom text
PC 115 IEH 14i:3tore the accumulator in N

emri location ,»«
KC 116 REN l=Le» byte Mi 21t=Htlh bite 9

iUiBS l+25***12=S427i. This is Ike bar

Jvare character node control

FJ 118 REN 114-PLD Pall tfct JCCUMlatM 1 f

roi tie stack it restart ari final cunt
eats

HH ll? REM 64=rti Return friR iiterript

ML 149 REN Chaise tbi display list

IP 1SI POIE DLHMEEKtQL+lflUlt

YE IS? REN Put the nc address in the IL «

ettor at 512/513

VH ltl PIKE 512 j B : POKE 513,1

RA 1*5 HEN Enable the interrupt

DR 17R PIKE 54166,141

SI ltl LIST

in first out basis. If you add something in. It
goes on top; if you take something out, you
start with the most recently added number.
The routines in the programs here all begin
by saving the contents of the accumulator to

Page 6's New Atari User

the stack (decimal 72) and end by restor-
ing the: contents of the stack to the accu-
mulator (decimal 104). In other words,
they use PHA and FLA so that the accu-
mulator lit left unchanged after the
routine. (The computer also has other reg-
isters. If we were using these wc would
save and restore them too). The final in-
struction (decimal 64, assembly language
mnemonic RTT) tells the computer to re-
turn from the interrupt.
The other instructions involve putting
chosen numbers in the accumulator and
then loading them into specified memory
locations, Because wc are using machine
code, we put the bytes directly into the
hardware registers we want to change,
rather than using Basic's shadow regis-
ters.

FINDING THE ROUTINE

Memory locations 512 and 5 1 3 are the
computer's low byte and high byte poin-
ters to the start of the DLI routine, DL1
machine code routines, including the ones
In the programs here, arc often put in page
6 of memory, which starts at location

1536. In this case, the relevant program
pokes are POKE 512.0 and POKE 513.6.
Because the computer has only one inter-
rupt vector, if you have more than one DLI
you Have to get each interrupt Lo change
the address at locations 5 1 2/5 1 3 to point
to the next interrupt routine address. This
Is covered in Program 3 below.

CHANGING
THE DISPLAY LIST

You must alter the display list to call the
interrupt To do this, you turn on bit 7 of
the Instruction byte (add 128) at the place
IS Fage 6's New Atari User

IIiPUV LI5T

T HI

tHAHGE

coup?

—

AZ III REM

UI 202 BEN

QZ 114 HEN

CJ 111 GRAPHICS I : D L =P E EI 1511 1 +f 5HPEEK 15

UU 228 Fll 11=1 TD 11: REM B : POKE 1S36+M
SlEKT 1

FM 231 HID 72,161,58,141,16,212,141,24,2
11,114,14

fll 232 REN 72=PHA PttSh KCUWJliflJr onto S
tick

EF 214 REH 169=LB* Load the acciNUlatir *

JL 2JB REN SB = i til but nuHbtr; r$i in t
his cast

JR 236 REH 14i=5T<l Men lite aeciwuUtor

in ik Mrs lie alii as.,,
fll 241 REN Ifl-loi bf\t afld 2l2=hi gh byte

giving II* 2 51*212=542 12 = MI5TIC addrc

ss to synchronise display
NT 242 IE* 141= STB Stirs lit ac cum la tor

in neaory locations . . .
El 244 REM 24=low kite and 2lt-hi9lt byte

giuini 24t25l#2lt=S3272 = harrfvart tol

our register
IC 246 REN 1S4=HA Pill actlWllitlr frm

stack

HN 211 REN €4=111 Return frON interrupt
ZL 24S REN Pokes as for li Sifts 1 about
D5 261 PICE IHlMEHCILUIHiH
m 27B MIE U2,l;P»E 513,6
Oil 2BI POKE 54216,112
51 2M II5T

llWltf LIST INTtFf LiPT fJ,

-- Fll ff E-LI CALLS UP "

THE SECOND UNE

CJ »l REN
IL 312 REN
IV 114 REN _
RG »& REN

CK 311 GRAPHIC! l:Bl=PEE«(S61M25WfEEIt(5
613

HC 321 FIR 1=1 TD 31 1 REAR BiPOIE 1516*11,1
JiEHT R

Iff 225 RATA 72 J 113,4 I 1«1,1 I 212
CH 338 DATA 119,13,141,1,2,114,64
MC 335 RATA 72,169,51,141,11,212,141,24,2
It

IB 341 RATA 72,169,1,141,1, 2,114,114,64
III 341 REN lHAW Hii^ hira

ZU 342 REN 72 IB 212 an the saw as list

ing u upside mm text
EE 344 REN 16f=LDA Load the accumulator

ittt, ■ i

EE 345 REN 13=lflj*tr, Our second III star
ts at wwrg location 1536413=1541

IG 346 SEN 14i=S!A Stare the accunulttor
ii nmory locations . ..

HA 347 REH R=lor byte and 2=h±fh byte giv
ins t+256fl:512

AG 346 REN U4=FLft fill acciiH froN stack
IF 34? REN 64-IT2 Return fro* (the first)

inter rapt
IT 351 REN ■MMMf JMfllH^M
AN 35Z REN 72 TU 2Bt are the sane as list
ing 2

KA 353 REN 72=NA Risk accBNUtator Cvhich

bas the RiNbtr 51) onto stack
TD 354 HEN 1H=LH Load acEH vith..
RA 355 REN l=AlN»tr vbich will gn iito 10

catioi 512. in this cast, B
II 356 REN 141=STA Store the accuwlator

so Ntmry locations
m 157 REN l-ltn byte mi 2=bifh Utl iit

ing 1*256*2=512
SK 351 REN 1A4=PU Rill accun fro* stack,
Done tvice because it ised PNA trice
IX 359 REN 64-fTI Return from It fa* second

) interrupt
FZ 361 POSE DL*12,PEEK»L*121*12B:PQKE IL

< 21, PEER (0021)4126
IS 371 PARE 511 f l:Rlt£ 513,6
DV 3B1 POKE 54716,191
SN 391 LIST

where you want the interrupt to happen. For
instance* if you want to change the 17th line
of the display list (about the middle of a
Graphics 0 screen) t the BASIC command
would be

POKE DL+16 r PEEK{DL+16)+12S

where DL Ls the start of the display list.

arc used by the computer for updating some
memory locations, and when you switch on
your Atari PEEK(54286)=64. indicating that
VBJs are enabled. DLIs are not used by the
operating system so we must set BIT 7 [add
1 2S to the byte] in order to enable them. The
BASIC command POKE 54286. 192 does this

ENABLING THE INTERRUPT

Memory location 542 86 is the computer's
Interrupt enable address. Bit 6 controls ver-
tical blank interrupts and Bit 7 controls dis-
play list Interrupts. Wc saw above that VBIs

THE PROGRAMS

The three programs show some simple DLIs,
The REMs In the listings should give a good
idea of what is happening. In all cases, typing
GRAPHICS 0 will get you back to a normal
screen when you are finished with the prog-

Page 6's JVeiu Atari User

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DISPLAY LIST INTERRUPTS

continued

rams, as this restores the default display list
Program 1 uses an Interrupt to print the
screen text upside down after a few rows of
normal texL You can print upside down char-
acters from BASIC using POKE 755,4. The
mil chine code routine puts the 4 into Location
54273, which is the hardware register for
755.

The DL1 in Program 2 changes the screen
colour. This is done by pulling the colour
number in memory location 53272 [the hard-
ware equivalent of location 710. for back-
ground colour). If you read the listing you will
notice that the colour number is first put into
location 54282. This is done to stop blurtncss
on the line where the colour changes. One
problem with DLIs Is that you have no control
over WHEN on the mode line the interrupt
will occur. However, POKEIng location 54262
(called the WSYNC register) with a number

makes Antic halt and restart a few machine
cycles before the end of the line. Dy making
Antic wait before it docs the changes we syn-
chronise the DM with the screen display.

Program 3 was included to show how one
display list interrupt can be used to call up
another. We saw above that you have to do
this If you have more than one interrupt be-
cause there is only one place (memory loca-
tions 512 and 5 13) for us to POKE the
address of the DLI code. Routine 1 starts at
1536 and routine 2 starts at 1549. LINE 370
of the program tells the computer where to
find the first DLL This routine then puts a 13
Into the low byte DLI vector at location 512,
which enables the computer to find the
second interrupt. The program combines the
other two interrupts, with the first one print-
ing the text upside down and the second one
changing the screen colour. <

Page 6's New Atari User

DISK BONUS

ORSON

and THE ORSON EDITOR
by Joel Goodwin

A classic logic game brought bang up to date
with true Atari Classic style graphics and an
editor for you to create your own games

Orson had Mown for a few months that he was not a human but a self-aware robot.
Has human peers had told him that he was the first of his kind, however time and
lime again the humans had refused to let Orson outside of the confines of the
laboratory. It was all he had known for the two years of his existence. As none of
the humans understood his self-aware programming properly they had no fdea how
he would behave in an uncontrolled environment. But today was different. The
humans had not visited him until late evening and it was then they offered him a
proposition.

Apparently, the Quark reactor which powers Europe is controlled by a supercompu-
ter. This supercomputer crashed this morning and it managed to output some random
data to the reactor before manual override took over. The reactor system .responded
by depositing every Quark pod into the maintenance chambers beneath the reactor,
which have been abandoned for many years. If the Quark pods remain out of the
reactor core for too long they could rupture and Jet ha I radiation will flood the entire
reactor complex. As a consequence the reactor will have to be shut down and
evacuated - the resulting power toss will cripple the whole of Europe.

The humans explain that Orson's robotic body is a lot more agile and radiation-
resi slant than a human in an environment-suit. They want Orson to go into the
underground chambers and neutralise the pods to avert the reactor shutdown, In
exchange Orson will be allowed to explore the outside world. /^m*

Of course its dangerous, but how badly does Orson want his freedom? v^m

ORSON and THE ORSON EDITOR are available only on trie New
Atari User Issue 71 disk. Disk subscribers will have received their
copy with the magazine but the disk can be ordered separately for
£2.95 from PAGE 6 T P.O. BOX 54. STAFFORD. ST16 I DR. Access
or Visa orders can be accepted by telephone on 07S5 213928
THE NAU ISSUE DISK OFTEN CONTAINS EXTRA BONUS PROGRAMS NOT LISTED IN THE MAGAZINE

Page 6's New Atari User

DISK BONUS

ORSON

MC A ftjlC Using the joystick, you must move Orson to push all of the pods in a
\7r\IVlC chamber into neutralising bays (these look like squares with rotating
lights). Pods are heavy and Orson will only be able to push one at a time. You must be careful
where you push pods because Orson cannot pull them if they are stuck by a wall.
As the pods are radioactive Orson has only a short time before the radiation overwhelms him,
The time remaining is shown at the bottom right of the screen-
Orson has three attempts at each chamber which are denoted by crosses at the bottom of
the screen. It you think you have got Orson into a situation where ihe chamber cannot be cleared
you can press START to abort the current attempt. You can press OPTION to return to the
title screen.

Once Orson has secured all of the pods he must go to the exit transmat {a disc with two orbiting
lights). Note that because of the reactor crisis not much power is available and the transmat
will not be activated until you have secured all pods. If you succeed in dealing a chamber and
getting Orson to the exit in time your score will increase and you will advance to the next
chamber.

NEW ORSON
GAMES

The 'Orson' program contains ten chambers but you can load other
games created with the ORSON EDITOR Pressing SELECT on the tide
screen will access the loading menu. You can load game files from disk
(which have extender ORS) or from cassette. You can also reload the
original game, which does not need to be loaded from disk or cassette.

FINAL POINTS

You can start playing from any chamber. Just press the chamber letter
on the title screen and when you press START you wilf begin at that
chamber. Also, you will be rewarded it you successfully complete the original game - but only
if you start from chamber A!

THE ORSON EDITOR

Now you can create your own chambers for 'Orson' and baffle those who thought they had
mastered the game!

There are four options from the main menu which are straightforward: Edit
game, Load game, Save game, Clear memory. The last three options are
simple to use so I will not go into any details here. The only point that needs
to be made is that all game files on disk will have the extender .ORS.

MCIMTAD ^ lhe ed ^ or y° u w '' : ' control a small box cursor with the joystick. You will
l\J\ I UK also notice that there is a bar of icons at the bottom ot the display. The
display above Ihe bar is where the chamber that you are editing is shown. When you press
the trigger in this area you will draw with whatever object is currently selected (see below).
But what happens if you press the trigger on the icon bar? Here is (he description of all the
icons (from the left to right):

IHE MAIN
MENU

Page 6's New Atari User

DISK BONUS

a 11 ip The first eight icons ere the objects from the 'Orson' game. The object currently
wMIVlt selected has a pink line above and below it To change the selection place the
/Sft IC^TC curs0r over a diff0rer,t object and press the trigger. Alternatively, the left/right
UDJCvl v cursor keys will work. The large 'S' is where Orson starts. There can only be
one starting point. Also around the edge of the chamber you can only plot walls and blank
spaces. This is to make sure Orson cannot leave the chamber.

AflDC ^ re * 0IJf co ^ oljr icons. If you press the trigger on one of these you can
vvLvvKu alter the colour by moving the joystick up/down for the luminance and left/right
for the hue Press trigger when done

Til ip The two digit number is the time allowed to complete the chamber. To alter this press
I JVIC the trigger on it and move the joystrck to select the time you want. Press trigger when
you have the coned time.

CHAMBER

The letter is the chamber you are currently editing. Again to change rhis press,
the trigger on it and move the joystick up/down. Press the trigger again when
you have the chamber you want. One thing to note is that it the letter is red then the chamber
is "invalid" - in other words it does not have a start and exit. Such chambers will be skipped
by the 'Orson' program. Note that if the letter is green it does NOT mean that the chamber
can be completed. This strll has to be checked by playing it yourself.

SWAPPING

The two arrows icon allows you to sw^p two chambers over if you wanted
them to be in a different order. The procedure for swapping two chambers
is simple. First put one of the chambers on the screen (use the chamber letter icon). Then select
the SWAP icon. You will notice a box will appear around it. Now you can move the joystick
up/down to select the other chamber. Press the trigger when you have it and the two chambers
will swap places.

The icon that looks like a clipboard takes you back to the main menu.

The 'X' icon can be used to fill the screen with a game object. To do so select the object
you wish to fill with {though not the start symbol) then hold down the trigger on the FILL
icon until the screen is filled with the object.

I ICC CI If ' n 9 er>era '' Passing OPTION will abort things. Normally it will send you back to
UvLiUL the main menu but if you press it on the main menu it will bring up the editor,

It will also abort a chamber swap. If you are going to create a big chamber then
you might find this helpful: Select the wall object and fill the screen, then select

the floor object and fill the screen. This gives you a basic frame to work with.
I have a couple of hints about creating your own chambers but feel free to adopt your own
approach. Firstly, chambers with lots of pods can be sometimes frustrating because once you
have worked out what to do it is very easy to make mistakes with so many pods. Secondly,
be generous with the time - "thinking" time needs to be included.

We//, that's about it and t hope you spend many hours creating your own devious chambers
and spend many more hours watching others trying to complete themt

Page 6's New Atwi User

■I -mATrn OPERATION

The TIPSTER blood-

j*\ /* our regular Tipster seems to have gone
* y n\issk\g at the moment so the Grand
I Tipster is stepping in to sort cut the
column this issue. Mind you the Grand
Tipster Is not so used to actually doU\g any
work so if the style is slightly different you'll
know why. The recipe this time is to mix a Jew
tips that have been left over from past issues
with a sprinkling of brand new iips that have
found their way to the Tipsters basket in the
pastfezv weeks to produce a heady concoction
that wilL hopefully, delight you all

If anyone sees the Tipsier around before the
next column do ask htm if he stQl has that little
yeUow disk!

THE BRUNDLES

Remember last issue, when Lcs Williams
couldn't get past level 98? Well here is a.
solution all the way [rem Germany (where
elseE) courtesy of Bodo Jurss,
What you need to do Is get hold of a sector
cdf Lor after first making a backup copy of
your Brundles level disk, Now find the fol-
lowing

Sector a31 or 33F(Hex) (on Side Bl)
Byte 19

and change the 60 to 99
This gives you 99 seconds to solve the level
(now if s possible!). And just In case you can't
solve U Dodo gives us the codes for the final
two levels

99 = CHEAP
100 = HIEND

Johnny Chan also sent in the codes for
Brundles levels 61 to 100 (presumably before
he read them last issue E)- Thanks Johnny!

First off this Issue is Steve Nicklin of Tarn -
worth who has some tips for OPERATION
BLOOD, He says to use the pause and posi-
tion cheat from a few issues back on all levels
but level I,

The best Bomb strategy

Level J - Don't use bombs. Shoot down

all enemies
Level 2 - Don't use bombs. Shoot down

all enc mics
Level 3 - Use four bombs
Level 4 - Use as many bombs as is

needed

Level 5 - Don't use bombs. Shoot down

all enemies
Level 6- Use all your bombs.

If the game is still too difficult then try the
neict few tips.

• Get rid of the tanks and helicopters
straight away.

• Get rid of rolling in commandoes straight
away. Leave the little men until last.

• ALWAYS kill the stalkers on levels 5 and

• On some levels you will lose all your
ammo. Persevere with the ammo that is
given to you about every 20 seconds. This
is not 20 seconds of game time though,
keep it in pause mode for about 20
seconds.

• Shoot slightly to the side of the comman-
does to kill them,

Steve has also gpt some tips fur WORM IN PARA-
DISE on how In get into the Main City,

Take bench, C r S, drop bench and stand ott it take
apple, eat appl e, W, W, W, north, take behemoth, wait,
drop viSOT, S, IV, W.

Page 6"s New Atari User

TIPS FROM THE HORSES 94 olde but goode Tips

(AUTHOR'S!) MOUTH

Richard Gore has been in touch with a couple of
programmers who wrote some of the classic Atari
games and what better place to gel some hints
and tips than from the guys who actually did the
programming!

CRUMBLES CRISIS

There are no cheats in this game but if you have
the disk version the levels are completely inter-
changeable. If you look at the filenames in the
disk directory it will be obvious which ones to
change. Note though that you SHOULD NOT
make any changes to your master disk as you
may corrupt it if you are not. careful. Always
work on a backup copy. No-one takes any re-
sponsibility if you zap your diskf

SPACE LOBSTERS, REBOUND and TAGALON

have no cheats, so all you hackers who have
been trying tt> tint! (hrm, tough luckf

BLACK LAMP

Type FOHEST. the name of Richard Munns'
favourite fool. ball team [the programmers both
hall from Nottingham) during the game to make
yourself invincible, You may restart a game by
pressing Reset but this will [li.sengage the invin-
cibility.

CAVERNIA

Type STEVIE NICKS (with the space) to jump to
the next level

Thanks to Richard Gore for sending the info in
and to fvan Mackintosh for supplying tin' infor-
mation .

HELP WANTED ... HELP WANTED

Robert Milton is looking for a Princess. Now
before you ladles all send in your photos, the
one he wants is only to be found at the
Dungeon of Koray in THE ETERNAL DAG-
GER. Anybody found her yet?

A few tips Tour J their way in from 'Ye Okie Atari 8-bit
Owner*, who it «eeira would like to remain anonymous.

When playing SPACE INVADERS shoot the aliens
in their column formation a* they appear on the
screen. Repeat this for each column (depending on the
ability of the player), i.e. follow the appearing aliens
across the screen while continually shutting (and
avoiding alien fine). Until the full alien formation ia on
Screen , concentrate on shooting the lower aliens, i.e. in
rows. The idea in shooting in columns initially is that
the aliens must march across the serpen from one side
to the other before they can descend tn a lower row and
by shooting in columns you give yourself mure time
than by shooting randomly or in rows at the lower
aliens. Also the Hbip that scoots along the lop, despite
its bonus, should be regarded more as a distraction as
the time spent shooting it Slows you down (clever game
design ploy), This method also Works fur similar games
that use aliens marching across the screen.

When playing MEG AB LAST (by T.K.Il and on press-
ing fire you you hear that familiar PHUT sound,
looking at the energy bar gives you no indication of
how many mure shuts you can fire, If you look at your
score and press fire, however, your score will decrease
(so you must now monitor your score). Having a shield
on helps and hy shooting bonus items your score can
be brought up (an instant fix foT a big score would be
to start a large explosion - a shield is necessary for
this). Or find a safe spot and wait for a cell, to charge
your energy bar.

A quick tip for PHAHOAITS CURSE. On the title
screen press OPTION and when prompted fur a code,
type SYN. Then press any key and continue the game
as normal. This starts the play at level 1,

Perhaps Ye Olde Atari 8-biL Owner doesn't want
people h: know (hat lie is sli'.l playing Space Invaders!
Nothing wrong with that, mate, the old uns are still
good uns I

As always keep the hints and tips coming.
You have ail done really well this time but
we need a constant replenishment of The
Tipster's lunch box* Remember a Tipster
without his tips can turn really nasty,

Send your hints, tip*, map*, solution*,
strategics, advice, cheats, words of wis-
dom, cries for help mid whatever else you
can think of to:

THE TIPSTER
NEW ATARI USER
P.O. BOX 54
STAFFORD
ST16 1DR

Page &'& New Atari User

Features

and ©M©^

'M PROUD!

James Austin describes
a day in the life of a
proud 14-year old
8-bit Atarian

Its not easy being a 1 4-ycaT old 8 -Bit
Atarian. Everyone at school nowadays
has Amigas, PCs, Amstrads and even
Jaguars(l), whilst 1 regularly worship my trus-
ty Atari SOOXL with 1029 dot-matrix printer.
1020 printer/ plotter, 1050 disk drive and
1010 cassette recorder. Children at school
continuously go around bleating 'Wlxat com-
puter have you got?' .. 'OK a 32-Bit PC with
monitor AND sound card ' 'Oh, T VEjus t got
an Atari Jaguar with 4 games. Got it the same
dag that it came out .. 'Oh, have you/ Vve a
... " and so on. The younger children at my
school are often chatting about what compu-
ter their Daddy has just brought them. Even I
get asked sometimes. When asked, I say. with
great pride and sat is faction 'An Atari 8 Blf .
You should see some of the looks I receive.
Some horrified -type, some sneering 'OK You.
should have brought a PC long ago' type
looks, 1 get even more looks when I state that
1 own an 8-Bit computer by choice and that I
have no intention of selling up to buy a sup-
posedly superior PC. Most think Tm mad.
Smirks appear, and ihey go off. Rut I don't
care. Why should 1? I own an ft- Bit Atari,

IT DOES WHAT I WANT

Recently I brought a program called TextPro
v4.56xe from Dean Garraghty's PD library. It
Is brilliant, a word processor with all the fea-
tures you would ever need - mail merge, mac-
ros, and a brilliant mini DOS menu. I also
have TEAM MATE, a good WP /Spread sheet
package. I can honestly say that, although J
can use the school PCs fully, I have yet to see
or use a PC WP package that is as easy to use
or as user- friendly as TextPro on the Atari,
Our school has just paid over £50 for Word
for Windows 6 on the PC, but for my needs
the best Just has to be TextPro. It has all that
I want plus more. At £2,00 it makes my IT
teacher look like a complete idiot! My honest
opinion is that Word 6 is the biggest load of
rubbish IVe ever seen. For DTP type jobs it is
great, but for a simple WP package it has too
many features. All those features - I'll never
use them, just more things to go wrong!

It's the same with PCs. Our PCs at school
have gone down numerous times (seven have
had to be repaired in the past 6 months). All
that cost! By comparison, my Atari has never
ever broken down once. I can honestly say
that, for the 10 years or more of its life, it has
never cost me or my uncle a penny, except In
electricity costs. Sometimes it hardly seems
fair that my friends, being PC owners, can
walk into any computer shop and buy some-
thing for their computer, whilst J have to send
off for something, having sometimes never
even seen a review, hoping that it will be what
1 want, and then find that it is about as useful
to my existing computer set-up as to a trac-

Page 6 s New Atari User

tor. Trust me to send of for DAISY DOT 2 for
my 1029, reading afterwards, when the prin-
ter printed garbage, that is for Epson Com-
patible printer owners! Gin 1 1 j 1 1 \\\ It pays to
read before you buy. even if you can't look (I
did read somewhere about Ray Goldman's
latest baby, DAISY DOT 3 - Now compatible
for a variety of printers'. The 1029 was not
listed, SO I dare not send off for it.

BIG IS NOT BEAUTIFUL

Why is it that children always judge a com-
puter by Its RAM size? Whenever I state that
my machine has 64 k. they always go 'MINE
has 254Jc* or words to that effect. IVe never
been ashamed of the fact that my computer
has less memory than its rivals, 1 commend
the fact that perhaps ihc Amiga has greater
sound facility (In some cases), and the PC has
more memory, but the fact that I AM COM-
*X)KTABLE WITH MY COMPUTER makes no
sense to them. Just because I haven't a PC,
people say that my parents Cannot afford one,
but that simply is not the case. When my
mum actually asked whether 1 would like to
get one, I said "No\ I once asked one of the
people who were taking the mickey out of 64k
memory what the term "k* actually meant, f Je
couldn't answer that one! It seems to me that
everyone is going 'if it- has a higher number, it
must be better'. Not in all cases. Take the
130XE. Twice the memory capability, but
same specifications otherwise. Has anyone
EVER used the extra memory of the 130XE,
except for RAMdisk? Not many, I bet

Why Is It that people take the mickey out of a
computer that they have never even heard of.
let alone seen- They're like a bunch of ladies
nattering over the garden wall - Look at him
over there. HE'S gat an 8- BIT computer/ *.
'You don't say.' .. Yeah, and he's only got
64k RAM', You've got to laugh. Who else but
Amiga and PC owners could think up such
drivel? As long as you're comfortable with
your setup, that's the main thing, I think.

Page 6's N*

WE ACTUALLY CARE!

For some reason or other the Atari commun-
ity seems different to any other computer
community. Most people who own Atari's are
not out for a fast buck, they support and help
others, something which I have not seen in
the Amiga and PC worlds. That is probably
why we have lasted so long without official
support for many years and the Atari com-
munity, if it continues to be as friendly and
helpful towards each other, wifi probably last
for many more. This is probably why I feel
comfortable with my Atari, I would not ex-
change it Tor the world, not for a million PC's!

When my IT teacher asked me about what
computer I had, and I replied that 1 had an
Atari 8- Bit, he asked me "Are you thinking of
selling it and buying a PC in the future?'.
Although I answered back "Not", quite firmly
enough (any more firmly and 1 would have
been at his throat}, it made mc start thinking.
I've been an Atari 8-Bit user for about 5
years, and as yet I hadn't given anything
back. I'd been meaning to write something,
but had never quite found the motivation in
myself to put pen to paper and actually do
anything. So I thought 'Let's do if. and ended
up writing this article on the back pages of
my school rough book. So tills is MY first
contribution, my way of supporting the Atari
world. I hope you enjoyed it.

J would like to say a Jew words of thanks ....
to Mr Hagger, my FT teacher, who gave me the
motivation to write the article: to MY MUM,
who gave me her opinion on the article; to
Eddie of Ra.inha.rn Kent, who sold me hts
brother-in-law's 1029 and came around time
and time again when it broke down on Christ-
mas Day and to Les and Sandy of NAU, who
continue to publish the best Atari magazine
ever to grace the UK*

For those wlxo would like to write in with
comments, complaints r letters of indolence
etc., my address is: James Austin, 1 9 Clive
Road\ Sittingbournc, Kent, ME10 1PJ
j A tori User 27

0)0

LET'S WRITE

There have been many programs pub-
lished III the past and programs still
being published that could benefit by
the inclusion a small VI3I routine. The main
problem with writing a VBI routine is that it
must be written in machine code and some-
how converted into a form that is suitable for
Including ul a Basic program. There arc slill
many good programmers on the Atari Classic
scene who are In awe of rnachine code and
therefore of Interrupt routines, but machine
code programming needn't be so overwhelm-
ing. The feet that machine code programming
cannot be done within Basic and must be
done a* a separate piece of programming
using a different environment seems to put
people off,

Unlike the Basic language, machine code
routines used within Basic appear to be no
more than rows of meaningless numbers or
meaningless strings of random characters
which Just happen to work and do a useful
Job. Exactly how such apparently meaning-
less sets of DATA or strings work remains a
mystery to some people who simply use such
routines blindly without question. The main
point is that although there Is nothing wrong
in using a routine that works, how much
nicer it would be to write a specific VBI
routine to do a specific Job within a Basic
program. That is what this article is all about,
1 will guide you through the necessary steps
from the outset of deciding what functions a
VBI routine needs to perform, right up to its
inclusion into a Basic program either as Basic
DATA or as a machine code string.

WHAT IS A VBI?

A VBI is a Vertical Blank Interrupt routine
which is a routine actioned in the time period
known as the "Vertical Blank" which is a
feature of television convention.

WHAT'S A
VERTICAL BLANK?

'Hie time period known as the Vertical Blank
is literally the period of time between the end
of one frame of a television picture and the
beginning or the next. A moving television
picture is made up of a scries of still frames
displayed In rapid succession in order to cre-
ate the illusion of movement It does this by
using a single electron beam forming a tiny
spot on the screen to draw each still frame in
a series oflines (625 in the UK) horizontally
across the screen. The process employed in
the convention of displaying a television pic-
ture can be visualised in a similar way to
reading the page of a book and this Is how it
will be described.

A page of a book is read in a series of hori-
zontal lines from left to right across the page
and when one line is completed, our eyes
"flyback" to begin the next line which Is one
line lower than the previous line, in television
convention, this flyback Is know as the line or
horizontal flyback and because it is blanked

Page 6's New Atari User

A VBI

John Foskett's
in-depth tutorial
tells you everything
you need to know

out (that is switched off} by the televisions
electronics to prevent it from ruining the pic-
ture, this flyback is known as the horizontal
blank period.

When reading, we slowly progress down the
page until we reach the final line upon the
completion of which we "turn the page 1 * to
begin another page. But if we imagine that we
are going to read the same page again, then
our eyes must do a different type of flyback
rather than the previous ly stated horizontal
flyback. In this case our eyes must go back to
the start of the page with a kind of diagonal
movement. This flyback is known as a frame
or vertical flyback in television convention
and again because it is blanked out. it is
known as the "Vertical Blank".

Because in television convention, there are
2T) still frames [or pictures} each scanned
twice with interlaced scanning every second,
it is clear that there arc 50 "Vertical Blank"
periods every second which is why a VBI
routine is actio ned 50 times per second.

WHY USE A VBI?

The advantage of using even a small VBI
routine is that it works completely indepen-
dently of Basic and so a Basic program which
includes a VBI routine could be visualised as
two programs working together, yet indepen-
dently of each other. Although a VBI routine
runs independently of Basic, the routine can
be controlled by the Basic program via the
use of flag registers. Since a VBI routine is
artioned 50 times per second along with the
computers own internal routines, there are
many functions that it could perform within a
Basic program

WHY BOTHER IF
BASIC CAN DO IT?

The truth is that Basic can't always do It and
if Basic can. it may involve a tfreiit deal of
unnecessary programming. Consider for ex-
ample the disabling of the attract mode in a
Basic program, we would need to use POKE
77,0 at strategic places in our program,
perhaps in many different places. How much
nicer it would be to Include this in a VBI
routine which is then actio ned 50 times every
second ensuring that the attract mode can
never be activated. We could then simply
forget It

Disabling the BREAK key is also a good ex-
ample of the advantage of using a VBI
routine. If this is achieved in Basic and the
program changes the screen mode then the
BREAK key is automatically re-enabled which
then has to be again disabled If this is perfor-
med within a VBI routine, then It Is con-
tinually being actioned 50 times per second
so that even if a Basic progra m does change
the screen mode, the VBI routine will automa-
tically take care of it and again we can simply
forget it

Fage &s New Atari User

A CHOICE OF TWO TAPPING INTO

THE ROUTINES

Whenever switched on h the computer is
using VBI routines of its own In order to
perform its general housekeeping tusks,
therefore whenever we write VBI routines, we
arc only adding to those already there. Bear-
ing this in mind, references are made in this
article; to the Vtil routines as a whole and not
just to our specially written VBI routine.

Within the computer are two built-in VBI
routines which can be visualised as being
completely Independent of each other. The
first is the stage 1 or immediate VBI and the
other is the stage 2 or deferred VBI. Access to
both routines Is provided via the use of vector
addresses which in effect allow us to break
Into the respective loop. The actual vector
addresses are found at locations 54£ and 547
fVVBLKI) for an immediate VBI routine and
548 and 549 [WBLKD) for a deferred VBI
routine. These two pairs of locations contain
the address In the usual Atari two byte
format.

WHICH VBI
SHOULD WE USE?

The difference between the two routines is
that the deferred VBI routine Is suspended (or
stopped) occasionally to allow the computer to
action some time critical operations when
necessary.

Because of timing constraints, an immediate
VBI routine must remain relatively small,
containing no more than about 3800 machine
cycles whilst a deferred VBI routine can be a
lot Larger having about 20,000. Because of
this requirement and the fact that the vast
majority of custom written VBI routines have
no time critical operations > they are normally
written as deferred VBI rou lines.

As stated above, both the Immediate and the
deferred VBI routines have vector addresses
which can be altered to accommodate a cus-
tom written routine. The way that a custom
written routine is inserted into the "loop 1 ' is to
load the address of our VBI routine into the
appropriate vector address and let our routine
jump to the address that was originally con-
tained within the vector. This means that the
vector address points to our VBI routine
rather than the original address and our
routine points to the original address instead,
[n this way, the computer will action our
routine Just as if it were an extension of its
own routines.

One very important point to remember is
that the computer is using both these addres-
ses all the time, so great care is necessary
when altering them If a crash is to be avoided.
This means that these addresses are being
used by the computer even during the in-
itialising of a Basic program, t*> if the compu-
ter was reading them at the precise moment
that our Basic program was changing them,
then the computer will crash. In order to
avoid this conilict H all VBI operations should
be temporarily suspended during the change,
over period. This is achieved by POKEing the
"'N on- Maskable Interrupt. ENable" (NMIEN)
register at location 54286 with zero prior to
changing the vector addresses, after which
NMIEN is reset to re -enable the VBI opera-
tions.

A custom written VBI routine must have
been previously set up prior to changing the
vector address or again the computer will
crash since the vector will contain* at that
precise moment, a nonexistent address. The
point to remember fs that these vectors must
always point to a legal address or the compu-
ter will crash.

F-euje 6's New Atari User

THE FEATURES
OF OUR VBI

It is always important to disable the atlract
mode and the BREAK key.

Another feature that effects the screen dis-
play which is very difficult to contain in Basic
but dead easy in a VBI is the CONlROL-l
stop-start toggle. When used, this feature in-
hibits all screen printing and can therefore
stop a program from working properly. It is
important I hat this is disabled.

Because it is often necessary to ensure that
only the uppercase characters can be used,
such as in an input routine, we shall provide
a "keyboard lock" to disable the lower case
character set and all inverse characters.
Sometimes however, all the characters are
required so this feature must be optional.
When enabled, (he keyboard lock will com-
pletely disable the CAPS and the inverse keys.

Many types of game programs require a
Urner of some kind and although the real time
clock at locations 18/ 19/20 is available, wc
shall include two individual timers, one count
up timer and one count down timer. Both
timers will increment in one second intervals
and will count 256 seconds after which they
will reset This will allow lor time periods in
excess of 4 minutes.

Because many users prefer to be able lo alter
the screen colour in order to suit their own
preferences, wc shall provide a means of cycl-
ing through all the colours in sequence. Tliis
will be achieved via use of the STAKT key and
SELECT will be used to reset the screen col-
our back to the normal blue.

Our VBI routine will be written as a deferred
VBI routine and to summarise, it will provide
the following ....

1 . Disable the attract mode

2. Disable the CONTROL- 1 stop-start
toggle

3. Disable the BREAK key

4. Provide an optional keyboard lock

5, Provide two timers, one count up and
One count down

6, Provide a means of altering the screen
colours

WHICH REGISTERS
FOR INTERFACING?

In order for our VBI routine to work, we need
to reserve some registers for it to use. There
arc a group of unused registers in page zero
which our VBI could use H they are locations
203 to 209. We will only need five of these
seven registers which will be locations 203 to
207. They will be allocated as follows ....

203: Controls the keyboard lock, when it con-
tains a zero, the keyboard lock will be
enabled, but disabled when it contains a
no n- zero value
204: Count up timer. Read by PEEK
205. Countdown timer. Read by PEEK
206: Divide by 50 control (not usable)
207: Colour cycling speed control (not usable)

ASSEMBLER AND
TEXT EDITOR

Before the actual source code can be written,
an assembler and text editor programs are
required. Writing in Assembly Language is a
two stage process where the text editor, which
Is basically a word processor, is first used to
write the source code in exactly the same way
as one would write a letter using a word
processor, after which the assembler is used
to assemble the source code. The code that
the assembler produces from the source code

Page 6's New Atari User

is known as the object code and wtU be our
VBI routine in machine code form, but it
cannot be used as it stands. The next process
to be performed is to convert the object code
into a form that can be included Ln a Basic
program and many utility programs have
been written over the years which do this. The
output file from the utility program will be our
VBI routine in Basic.

It is possible to write machine code routines
directly Into Basic DATA by looking up the
various codes and calculating the various
addresses where necessary into the usual
Atari two byte format, but this is very time
consuming and error prone and should only
be considered for the simplest of routines and
then only with much experience.

THE SOURCE CODE

Type the source code listing SOURCE l,
which Is our VBI routine, into a text editor tn
accordance with the text editor's instructions.
Everything that follows a semi -colon, includ-
ing the semi -colon itself may be left out since
this is the equivalent of Basic's REM
conrmand.

THE SOURCE
CODE EXPLAINED

The first Instruction In the source code list-
ing is PKA [PusH Accumulator). This instruc-
tion is used to store the contents of the accu-
mulator on the stack for retrieval later. This is
done because our VBI is an interrupt routine
which wtil in effect, be borrowing the proces-
sor for a short time after which the processor
must continue as if it had not been Interrup-
ted. Therefore after our VBI routine has fin-
ished with the processor, the processor must

LET'S WRITE A VBI
THE SOURCE CODE

PHA

I Disable ATTRACT and COMTF.OL-1
LDA #0
STA 77
ST A 767

-Disable the BREAK key
LDA #&4
STA ie

STA 53774

-Update Timers

INC 206

LDA 206

CMP #SO

BNE CLOCK

LDA #o

STA 206

INC 204

DEC 205
CLOCK
■

\ Keyboard Lock

LDA 203

BNE KEYLOCK

STA 694

LDA #64

STA 702
KEYLOCK

-Reset Screen Colours
LDA 53279
CMP #5

BNE RESETCOL
LDA #1 46
STA 71 0
RESETCOL

; Cycle Screen Colours
LDA 53279
CMP #6

BNE CYCLECOL
INC 207
LDA 207
CMP #5

BNE CYCLECOL

LDA #0

STA 207

INC 710
CYCLECOL
t

;Jump to Address
PL A

J MP 49602

Source code listing - SOURCE 1

Page 6's Neu> Atari User

be restored to exactly the same status as it
was previously to allow it to continue- since
our VBI routine is only using the accumula-
tor, there will be no need to store the contents
of the X and Y registers as these will not be
changed.

Disabling the attract mode and the
CONTROL- 1 stop-start toggle is achieved with
the equivalent of POKE 77,0 and POKE 767.0
which is ...

LDA #0 (LoaD Accumulator With the
number 0)

STA 77 (STore the Accumulator contents
in location 77)

STA 767

Disabling the BREAK key is achieved by
using the equivalent of POKE 16,64 and
POKE 53774,64 which is ....

LDA #64
STA 16
STA 53774

Updating the timing registers with the re-
quired one second intervals is achieved by
using another register (206) to count 50 VTil
operations before allowing the timers to be
updated once, in effect dividing by 50, Since
there arc 50 VBI operations every second, the
result is one second intervals. The section of
code that docs this is ...

INC 206 (INCrement 206 by 1)

LDA 206 (LoaD Accumulator with the

contents of location 206)
CMP #50 (CoMParc accumulator with

the number 50)
BNE CLOCK (Branch if Not Equal to zero to

label CLOCK)

LDA #0
STA 206
INC 204
DEC 205
CLOCK

(DECrcmcnt location 205)
(Address of label CLOCK)

This works by incrementing location 206 by
one at every VR] and loading its contents into
the accumulator where it is compared with

the number 50 and ff not equal to 50. then
the updating part of the code is bypassed. To
show the way that this piece of code works,
consider the Basic comparison below where
the only difference is that, tn assembly lan-
guage, when a location is incremented past
255, unlike Basic it simply returns to zero.

10 POKE £06 ( PEEK(206)+1
20 IF PEEK(206)<>50 THEN 60
30 POKE 206,0
40 POKE 204,PEEK(204)+1
50 POKE 205.PEEK(205) i
60 <Next section >

When location 203 co n Lai ns a zero* the
keyboard lock is enabled and if a zero is not
found t then the key disabling code is bypas-
sed, thus ....

LDA 203
BNE

KEYLOCK
STA 694
LDA #64
STA 702
KEYLOCK

(INVFLG, Inverse flag register)
(SHFLOK, Shift lock register)

As an example of how this section of code
works, consider the following Basic example
[tine numbers continue from the previous
example)....

60 IF PEEK(203)<>0 THEN 90
70 POKE 694,0
80 POKE 702,64
90 <Next section>

Cycling and resetting the screen colours is
achieved by delecting the START and SELECT
keys and manipulating the colour register
710 accordingly, thus ....

LDA 53279
CMP #5

BNE RESETCOL
LDA #148

STA710
RESETCOL

Page 6's New Atari User

LDA 53279
CMP #6

ONE CYCLECOL
INC 207
LDA 207
CMP #5

BNE CYCLECOL
LDA HO
ST A 207
INC 710
CYCLECOL

EM 318 DIM VBISC813 : UBlS^'HQKIHdJ F1p!1*« R

65 32ft ADDRE55-ADR tUBlS) £ KI-IWT CftD&KESS/Z

56) ;L0=A&DRE5S~liI*2S&
XI 33ft POKE 54286, ft ; POKE 548,LQ:P0KE 549,

HI: POKE 54286,64 : RETURN

VBLSTR - see text below

The screen colour cycling speed is regulated
by Hie instruction CMP #5 which follows LDA
207. To slow the cycling, increase the number
and to speed it up, lower the number. This
piece of code is best compared with Basic as
before and again note that after a register is
incremented past 255. it resets to zero (line
numbers continue from the previous example]

90 IF PEEK(53279)<>5 THEN 1 10

100 POKE 710,148

110 IF PEEK(53279)<>6 THEN 160

120 POKE 207,PEEK(207)+1

130 IF PEEK(207}<>5 THEN 160

140 POKE 207,0

150 POKE 710,PEEK(710)+t

160 <H&xt section>

Exiting a VRJ routine is achieved by jumping
to an address via a JMP [JuMP) instruction
after retrieving ihe original accumulator con-
tents from the stack via PLA (PuU Accumula-
tor) which is the opposite of PllA as used fit
the top of the listing.

OUR VBI IN USE

Whichever assembler and text editor prog-
ram you have used our VBI routine, once in
the form of Basic DATA, should appear exact-
ly the same as the DATA in Lines 350 to 370 of
the Basic listing VBLBAS, Line 3 1 0 of the
program loads the DATA Into page 6 and line

330 sers up the vector address. Note that the
NM1EN register at location 54286 is POKEd
with a zero prior to altering the vector address
in order to suspend VBI operations during the
change over period and then reset afterwards.
The listing is an example program to demons-
trate that our VBI routine is working. Follow
the on screen instructions in order to check
it.

Another way Lhat our VBI routine could be
stored is in the form of a machine code string.
Delete lines 3 10 to 370 from the VBI.BAS
program (nfter saving it of course) and then
add the lines shown in the listing VBLSTR,
Note that the address ol the string is found
using ADR(VD1S).

From running the amended listing, the
advantage of a directly defined machine code
string is obvious - virtually no initialising time
because there is no time consuming DATA to
load. However if something is typed which
results in an error then a crash is likely.
When compared with the origir.nl lisiing. the
amended listing can be seen to be far more
sensitive to error and prone to crashing. For
this reason, it may be a good Idea to include a
VBI routine in a program in the form of Basic
DATA while the program is being developed
and then change it into a machine code string
upon completion . Another disadvantage of
using machine code strings is the difficulty
involved in typing them in, they arc inevitably
full of awkward control characters which

Page 6's New Atari User

IE 11 REM i ^

OD 71 HEM 1 LET'S MITE 8 911 [
M 38 REN [PTitttn by Jtkl FHfcettl
KO 41 REN | February IMS |

n 58 REN | 1

U M REN fEXAWLE H0GMM TV TEST]
IN 71 BEH 1 BUD MI RIUTINE I
BZ 88 PEN ' 9
IL 31 GRAPHICS iSSIH 5MCf$f37I : SPICED"

■ i 5PACESU7J-" " iSMCEf I21=5PflGE$
BE 111 fUl 753,1;? "EhWLE PROGRAH FDR

TESUIC OUR III":? :? "INITIALISING , ."
FA 111 HEN HiEMMllHa
TS IfR CflSllt IMPOSITION 1,2:? "OUR VII

ROUTINE 1$ NOM HlRlNC"

dh lie ?;?:?:? "cunt up tiki : peer

l2i4J=":? !? "CURT HI iiier: PEEK (2
•51=-

If 148 * !t S? il "PRESS Mil IB CYCLE
SCREEI C0L8885 11 :? i? "PRESS EOTM
IB RESET COLOUR"
II 158 ? :? "PRESS TO EXIT"

RZ KB POlf 281,1 :PBEE 385.8
HI 178 POSITION 38, i!! PEEK f 214) j" -
YD 111 PISinOR 3> f lr? PEEK 1215) ; n "
m 111 IF PEEKI5J27»=3 THEN 221
01 211 GITB 178

CD zit reh GHMEMUHH

OR 1Z8 FBR I=f TO ii: POSIT ION 1,1:1 SPACE
S:NEKT I: HIE 752 r 8:P0KE 283,B:P0KE 71
4,155

DH 238 POSITION 1,8 tf "TNT ENTERING LBkCN
CASE ANI INVERSE CHARACTERS All THE

N POKE 203, 1 ANI TIT AGAIN.,,
NG 148 < ;* "TIT LISTING THE PRRGRAR ANI

PRESSING TIE BREAK KEY ANI ALS8 TRY C

8HTR8L-1 IB STOP THE LISTING ■ * * »*
NT 258 7 i? ,r Ttr PRESSING BEU Tl CYCL

E THR1NEN THE SCREEN CILBNI5 AT TIE SA

m TINE"

NU III 1 "AS TYPING II LISTING THE PRIGNA
ft. ... H

LN 271 1 !? "TIT TYPING "GRAPHICS I 1 ANI

PRESSING THE BREAK KEY...."
ON 111 ERI

TS 311 HEN liR«l*MMim

Kfl III RESTORE 358: FOR 1=1 T8 U:IEI» l!P

ORE 1536+1 jl I NEKT I

es in rem ran

FF 311 PICE 54211,1: PIKE 541,8: POKE S4f,l

:PD1E 54281, 14 IRETUNN
RY 348 REN

IM 151 RATA 71 , 189, 1,133, 77,141,255, Z, 1»
,141133,11,141,141211,231,218,115,210,
111,51, 118,8, 1GS, 1,133, 288, 111,284

NR 318 DATA 1», 215,115, 283, 288, 1,141, 182
,1,11^64,141,111,2,171,31,118,281,5,2
I8,S,UM48 J 141,1»,2 J 173,I1 J 2I8

H8 378 RATA 211, 6,2RR, 15,238,287,115,287,
211,5, 2»,7,l»,l, 133,217, 231,198,2,18
4,78,138,194

makes them extremely error prone.

SWAPPING OVER

If It Is thought necessary to use a deferred
VBI routine as an Immediate VBI routine (or
vice versa) then it Is simply a matter of alter-
ing the VBI routine s final address and use

Page 6's

VBI.BAS -the routines in action

the "other" vector address. Changing the de-
ferred VBI in the Basic proflra m above into an
immediate VBI routine is achieved by altering
the last two statements in the DATA which
are to be found on line 370 and by using the
other vector address in line 330.

If the locations 548 and 549 are FEEKed in
direct mode, then It can be seen that they are
the same as the last two DATA statements In

New Atari User 35

NORTH OF SCOTLAND ATARI USER GROUP

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LET'S WRITE A VBI

continued

the listing above, that is 138 and 194 respec-
tively. These two DATA statements must be
the same as the values stored in locations
546 and 547 instead and so must be changed
to 226 and 192 respectively. This change
must also be reflected in line 330 In the above
listing by using POKE 546 H 0 and POKE 547,6
instead of the present vector address.

NOW THERE ARE
NO EXCUSES!

A whole new world of programming has just
opened up which is as usual only limited by
one's imagination. There is no excuses now
for not making great use of VBI routines. The
possibilities are endless, so get yourself an
assembler.

MY ASSEMBLER

J wrote an assembler program some time ago
which is Ideal for use with this article. My
assembler writes its output files directly in
Basic DATA bypassing the need for converting
the norma] object code. My assembler, known,
as the "Turbo Assembler", is very easy to use
and uses a word processor as a text editor (E
use TcxtPro VI, 2]. My Turbo Assembler is
ideal for beginners in machine code and
assembly language and It may be the only
assembler you ever need.

To obtain a copy of my Turbo Assembler,
write to

Mr. John Fbstoert
26 Auckland Road
Kings ton-upon-Tl^ames
Surrey KT1 3BG {England)

Page 6's New Atari User

COJVTRBITTMS

YOUR contributions are the
Hfeblood of New Atari User

All of your contributions are
welcome but at the moment
we need more

GAMES LISTINGS

BONUS PROGRAMS

However don ' t stop sending in
other articles and programs. If
something interests you* you
can be sure it will interest
someone else so write it
up and send it in - NOW!

©can Oarraghty ©oftware

* PD Library * Commercial Software
Publish inn * Magazine Publishing
ir Ha rdu > are/sof t uxirc bought &> sold

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THEY DO THAT?

From Leslie Denson comes the fol-
lowing

" Your suggestion of a llow do they
do that' column Is quite interesting and I
think you may have inadvertently started this
off on the Issue 69 disk when you asked how
to get NO DOS to work from DOS. Hie solu-
tion is to add the run address $ 1 POO at the
end of the file. I used a sertor editor, but a
safer way would be to transfer the file to a
new disk with the same filename but without
write protection, then type in and run the
following program:

10 OPEN #1,9,0, "DiNDOSCONV.COM"

20 PUT #1,224: PUT #1,2

30 PUT #1,225: PUT #1,2

40 PUT #1 ,0:PUT #1 ,31 :CLOSE #1

The program should then work without trou-

ble. All files with the COM extender will be
shown in the menu, incidentally NDOSCONV
will run with SpartaDOS without the added
run address

A N.C. Williamson Supplied a solution in
^ Basic for the YN keys which we may
W feature if this column gets going but
also asked "What acUon do you need to take
to be able to call up and use the extra 64k
RAM on a 130XE or an extended 256k
machine?"

That ioofes like an cultele irt itself! Anyone
core too haue a go?

Let's see if we can get this column going.
Send some questions to us at the usual
address just put HOW DO THEY DO THAT
on the tap of your letter to make sure it
doesn't get lost in A! ran Palmer's bulging
mailsack. •

Page 6*s Near Atari User

TYPE- IN & DISK

[p[g©©(gA[Ml

PLASMA

J^^Wl hJs program creates an effect com-
monly seen on the PC of a gas or
JL pjasma cloudy aJ though they can be
Interpreted as mountain ranges, starfields or
geographic maps depending on the colours]
The effect is created by plotting a series of
dots of different colours and shading in be-
tween them using the other available colours.
The program allows you to aJtcr X and Y grid
steps, colours used, random seed values,
graphics modes and draw type to create many
effects, in Graphics 9 [16 shades) you get a
sort of marbled or textured surface and can
colour cycle in many different styles in
Graphics 10, 7 and 15.

MENU CONTROL

From the menu use the following keys:

D- Draw plasma cloud of current Type using
set parameters. Press any key to quit
drawing and return to the menu

V- View picture. Any key for menu

L - Load picture. Gives current disk directory
with the selected filename extender (see
below). Enter filename or press Return for
menu, Format is a straight 62 (31 for
Graphics 7) sector flic dump from the
screen display

S- Save picture. Enter filename or Return for
menu

F- Filename extender. Enter name to use as

Andy Guillaume
presents an abstract
pattern creator
usually found on the
PC but his time in
Turbo Basic for the
Atari Classic

the filename extender for I^oad and Save or-
ations

G- Set graphics mode. At each press the
Graphics mode number will cycle through
10+ 1 1 H I5< 7, 9 then 10 again. Grapphics
mode info is also displayed

X-'Increasc X stcpfXS), Max value is screen
width

CNTRL-X- Decrease XS- Min value is 2

Y- Increase Y step(Y5). Max value is screen
depth

CNTRL-Y- Decrease YS. Min value is 2

E- SeL random seed value (RS), This is used in
the draw routine, it's use depending on the
current draw type (see below). Enter the
required value and press Return, illegal
values will be ignored

T- Draw type- At each press the draw type

Page 6's New Atari User

cycles through:

1 Random - Draws grid of dots using XS

and YS with RS as a seed for the random
colour selection

2 Skip Up - Draws grid using XS and YS

with RS as the number of colour registers
to skip up through per dot

,3 Skip Dn - Same as Skip up but goes down
registers

4 Up/Ooum. - Same as type 2 and 3 but

goes up until maximum register is
reached then down until minimum then
up again

5 Scatter - Plots RS amount of randomly

coloured dots using XS and Y5 as grid
width and height

6 Shader - This mode takes an existing

screen (i.e. load one in3), and shades in
between dots on the XS and YS grid

7 Checked - The same as type 1 but in this

mode each block of four dots [on the XS,
YS grid) Is cheeked to give four different
colours if possible

C- Colour cycle (if available). While in colour
cycling mode, the: following keys change
the display:

Spacebar - Reverse cycle direction
<- Speed up
> ■ Slow down

inverse key - Reverse colour flow direction

Return - Pause cycling. Any key to resume

Escape - Return to menu

+ - Decrease cycling seed number

*- Increase cycling seed number

CLR/ SET/TAB - Toggle Glow mode

L - Loop colour white in glow mode Note: Only
plotted foreground colours are cycled, not
background

R- Register edit

The colour register used In draw mode is
taken from the available plot list. For each

register available you can assign the number
of the actual colour register to be plotted. The
maximum and minimum colours to be used
can thus be set. but colours in between wtU
still be used to shade the cITccL The available
Plot registers arc shown on the left, with their
assigned colour register numbers on the
right. On boo tup or when the graphics mode
is changed these will be the same, I.e. all
colour registers active. Use the following keys
to edit the list:

M - Return to main menu

R - Reset to default

V« ■ Decrease/ Increase number of registers
used

E - Edit list. A prompt will appear for each
available plot register. Enter the new value
and press Return, or Just press Return to
keep the old value. Min 0, Max <numberof

regs.>

AN EXAMPLE RUN

Say you want a Graphics 10 plasma, on a 4
by 4 grid using colour registers i-7 H (not
background ) of Checked type then proceed as
follows

1 - Use G to select mode 10

2 - Press R for register edit

3 - Decrease number of registers used by

prcssi ng - (minus)

4 - Press E to edit. Set values from 1 to 7

for each respective available register

5 - Press M to return to the menu

6 - Set XS and YS using X and Y keys

7 - Press T until Checked mode is on

8 - Press E to set random seed and type in

the required value

9 - Press D to draw!

10 - After drawing, press C to colour cycle
and see that it's much better without
the black bits of background in the
drawing

Page 6's New Atari User

II 1 HEN

W 1 REN i PLASM If A, toil law t
Yf I REN i NeH ATM I USER - APRIL 35 tt

IY II DEN

EI 11 TRIP 2838

Pfl 31 BIN E$ (41 , F$ I2II , 1$ n« , RB (15} , 5T$ I
6), TV J (56)

« 41 TTSlXl,5fl- n l4nd«H Ifcif lip Slip DFt

Up/lem Scatter Shader Checked "
NS 51 5Cl=333I4:CHRi752

pn se gsp^izexec grselect

PP 71 XC=?!YC=v}*S=Kl

KM 96 ST^iJSTtlX^H-TYSrcijM

VH JB GRAPHICS XB:5ETC0L8t ^ I , KB, 18 : 5FTC0

in xi/^tU^ETeeioR i,u,u

OP 188 PBIE Bl^lSPOtE C UR, Kl

YE 111 POSITION Ml:?

F')d£hd C t cud defi

PI 111 EXEC BHIT8P

Ui 138 PISII1II 9,4:? 'frm fliti"
SI 141 position 3,6:? -fload iave"
PI 151 PISIHII M = ? 'flilena** Mt) <"jE$

tH1ll*« ■■
f * J

SI 1GB POSITION 9,18:? s §pg edit SSed

ill *f tilt ti

II 171 IF IG5P=>Si IR G5F=I53 II GSP=5I THE

I POSITION 5,12:? 'ft/cle";GITD 191
IN 1B1 POSITION 3,11:? "

re its mum turn? "Hsipp rnu

IC HI A=EM:IF A>15 THEN A-fl-16

CM HI PISIHII 3,14:? 'Ifr. Mode:", A;" "

IT »l POSITIOR 11,14:? "X pi is r n jKU+9U

■ ii f i

Fli III POSITIOR 9,ii:? "Colours T T, i CPLSW

■ it ii

M 141 POSITION 11,11:? J, f piis : n ;BEItxi

■ it n
j

LR isi positior 9,ll:? 'fl step :";iej" ■

II 111 PISITIIR ll,ilit "Q Step :" f Wj"
■

m 171 PISITIIR it,!iil H OH31 Q ft 9 TI

IECJ"
N 1H SET A

TR IN IF A=SI THEN EXEC PLftSHA :GDTfl 30

III 311 IF A=ll THEN EXEC UIEHJGOTQ 31
PA 311 IF A=67 AMD (CSP=X1 IN G5P-X3 DR G

5P=5J THEN EREC CYCLE: GOTO 30
UP III IF A=6t THEN HC=K£4X1
OP JJS IF lONII THEN XC=M
XI 141 IF 1=13 THEN YC=YC+X1
» 351 IF mm TIIEI YC=tt
TR 3fl IF 4=14 THE! RC=XC-X1
KV 171 IF *C=X1 THEN XC=WB
VT 311 IF A=15 TNER YC-YC-X1
IN 3)1 IF fC=W THEN YG=NEI
Dl 488 IF A=7i THEN EXEC LLD : GBTI 111
AN 411 IF A-83 THEN EXEC SSI: MM 118
Of 411 IF A=ll THEN EXEC REGE*:CQT0 118
FA 431 IF A=71 THEN EXEC GI3ELECT

II 441 IF A=§3 THEN EH EC CHSllGOTO 111
MS 458 IF Az71 THEM EXEC FEED I GIT D 111
FB 4bl IF A=S4 THEN EXEC TYPE; GOTO 111
OH 478 GATB 171

JJ 411 PRBC VIEH

IB 411 EXEC SETGRM

VD SBfl HOVE SCRjSCHjSCLEH

m 510 GET A

VH 511 ERIPRDC

PR 531 PflOC SET GIN

Ml 541 CL=l*lt!Llllf=*l

VH 551 GRAPHICS GRH

PN SIB EXEC BRITRP

01 571 IF GSP=?II THER FIR 1=715 TI 711:P0

RE N,CL+LUH:L BM=LBr**M : MEN T I
GU 501 IF GSP=4 THEN SETCOLDI 4,XI J lt

III 531 IF G5P=7,2 TNER SEKOLOB 4,11,11

XT £11 IF &5P=KL OR GSP=5 TNER PORE 711, C

L+fl:PKE 7IJ,CL+H:PDKE 710.CL+12
IN 611 $Ci=r>PEEI(B83lP=BPEEItJ6l1
VS 621 ENDPRDC
HE 638 PMC SSI
* 641 CLS : POSITION 11, XI:?

ZB 651 EXEC FILES: IF IFFzXl THEN 131
GT 66B BPEN ttEl,B,7EB,F$
GR 671 BPUT RXi.SCH^SCLEH
ES 688 CLOSE Nil
RS £31 CIS

sat'S Pictu

Page 6's New Atari User

UP 781 ENDPROC

OK 711 PRIC LLI

EC 711 CLS ! POSITION lljJflf? ' IWTNJfil'l

IR 731 EXEC FILES: IF IFF=W THER 771

EH 741 1PER NXl f 4 f 7l,F$

AE 751 BGET tttl ,SCti,SCLEl

El 761 CLOSE NX!

RP 771 CLS

HF 781 ENBPMC

ZY 731 PROD Gf SELECT

KN IN G3P=tSPm

IB til IF GSJ>>S THER GSP=3tl

OV 111 IF GSP=X1 TNER GRN=Z3:CIL5=3:HIA=1

53:HEl=35:5CLEN=3l48:E$= lj ,GP7 11
OH 131 IF G3P=XI TNER GBK=9ECBL5=15itflB=7

3 ! «EI=I31 J StLEN=7iOB JE*=" .FiP"
11 041 IF G5P=K3 THER GRH=ll!C0LS=7 :MII=7

3:HEl:I31:StLEN=76BB:ES= ,, .FLP 11
JP 151 IF GSP=4 THER GRH=il:CRLS=15iHII=7

3:HEI=lH:SCLEN=7iBI:Eii H .FLP"
Mr HI IF GW=5 THEN tRff=?l:CHS=3: 01=15

3:HEI=l?l;SCLE«=768l3Ei=" 1 615"
NT 171 IF KOHI& THEN HC=HID
BG 081 IF VOKEI THEN VC-HEI
TL 13B IF I5>CIL5 TIEN R5=£l
IZ 381 FOR TO C0LS:RB(»=l:NEIT 1:11

H=CDLS
UT 311 E NO PRBC
II 321 P11C NEGEB
RJ 531 CLS

OU 341 PISITIII ll.Url "Plot"

IF 311 POSITION IB, XI:? "Register"

HC 318 FBB N=X| 10 RRU

NX 371 POSITION 12,X1+M:» N

MR 318 PISITIII 13,Z2*N:? RUIN]

IP 331 RENT N

01 1111 PISITIIR XI, 2R:? "WB let/lBC 8

dit 0eS€t EefiB 11
II 111! GET A
MJ 1128 IF ft=77 THEN 1161
CA 1131 IF A=II TNER FOR |:XI TO C1LS:NN(

»=H:NEXT N:IRU=C1LS :GOTQ 931
BY 1141 IF A=45 MB NRU)X1 THE! POSITION

12, X2tNRU:? ■ H : POSITIOR 1J,X2*1RU;?
■ "!IRU=NRB-X1

VI 1I5B IF A=61 ANI INlKClLS TIEN NRIf'NRU
m \ POSITION 12,n+HRU:? MBU : POSITION

13, Xl*IRHi? IUIIRI!

1861

IF AO 69 THEN 1111

DO
y m

1178

IW t V

FOB 1~ZI TO IBM

■r

rS31 1111 iVj AX~ H

BBVF FBI VB

Fir

I1AA

111!

19 n

VII

nil

n I

IF F4-" b THF1 d-JFIIfBI 'LATd IfCB
IT rJ- IntJL H-Klf IB/ *mw 1 D 1X31

U H

1 lift

M- VHL IT 11

Fll

1 14A

1141

if aitt ao iiem ^ thfi iaba

t-L

11 JO

DU t U\~ A * Dfl-CTf Tlllf VT Vlllr?

Kb lll-H trUll i 1UH ZdjAZ*Aif B>

nfl

HDD

it r ut ■

■Y
■ i

1171

CBTO lllfl
■v i if inn

Ifi

TlV

1 1RA

CI S

1t4B

1 Til

BBnr rKS.&

HID

PASTTTAN II 1A

J LL9

PlfF TIB KB

FF
rr

14 JO

TBPIIT F§
i Brill r?

lit

If IB
Ilia

VBFF TAB Vi

■u

Item

TF t£-" n tiFI 1441

A~ UAI fF^l
H- VRL trJ J

III

If 71

TF fin A)?S5 THFB I?ffl

1 tBB
It mm

■ J—H

711

1T4B

FBBPBlf

■FIT

11 A A

PBOC FiEB

r HUlr I L L V

If v

1 TI H

IflSTTTflM TB B

rvjitiBn *Bji ■

1 1f A

BAiTF f AA JfA
puPlL trHB,nv

IBPJJT FS

134B

PIKE CNR, XI

Hit

1151

IF Fii*" THER 1331

135B

L=LFJCF$1:IF L=7I BR iHl TIER 11

1178

||=«

E$R2,XiTL)=F$Ul>U

113fl

CHNNB

14B1

PRDC TYPE

1411

5T=5T4X1:IF SI>7 THEN SHXI

1421

L=CST«fll-7 : SIS fXl , IJ=TYS IL, L*7I

Page 6's New Atatl. User

TT 1438 ERffPROC

T 1
id

i t a-fj

tc tT-T TNFt FVFf TVD7

IT 51-/ MER tJlCt 1 1 r /

hlihr 1 I Jfl *k li fin -rm n r

IR 1448 PRDC TTF4

J / 70

rill 110 ENIIRI'DlflT h! V
tULUft MU iDi < rLU I fljl

I'll i jrn j. _ line

CR 145B H-fl+H5

1 RRA

■rp PFFIf f7S#n 0?55 THE! POP

:GOTO

RR 1488 ■ - h Nil NUVfCL

iu i j Til te b— v» nn if mi tueii be—be i rnin
JK 1171 If R-JCI OH fi-IRU THEN R5- - R5!bOrO

riv

% AIR

A IP Ji Q

BEKT f

1451

u u

1B7A

BERT I

■l n i ■

11 14a B tIPPHDC

V It Jfl

FOR M~XB TO WTD-MC STEP HC

1 Rim ri nP I H lUv Rl ir J 1 If 11 V

LI 1*38 PRDC TTPb

FAB V-tl TA HFT-YC STEP YC

nil lEBfl 1-TUT fUTH yiff-l ■ V-TVT f UTT >VM

PV 1DBB 1-1 A 1 iNlDYHlrJ c T- 11 1 LHEl f Tt J

If 5R

^ If JD

LOCATE M Y PIC

LVIfH >L ni Pjrlv

SL I51B FDR l-XI ID 15

1 HRfl

1 RftftTF tt4Rf T P?£

PL 1 3 ZB 3 A -Willi I H J*mC j Ctf-RoNv it) ft YC

RV
n f

1 ft?fl

J. D 1 ■

1 AFdTF H V4TF PIC

IK I5JB 4-RrRI(257-R5] :B-A NuD IuHCL

J 1 1

i ft ft a

i nroTF t fitf rivf pjr

FP 1541 COLOR RUtoJlPLOT 5A,CR

lt)B

XC1=(P2C-P1C3VXC

KH 155B IEXT 1

Bit

IC2-(P4C-P1«/HC

ZE 1511 ERBPROC

411
in

1118

FOR R2=X8 Tfl XC

HI 1578 PRBC TTP?

lfZ8

IF 5T-I THER LOCATE (X+K2),

V 00 'T

TU i Cta * >nAHn r »n net — a urn miuri

IH 15118 A-flftRD EZS7~B5 3 :B-fi NOP REJfKL

F PPOXB TRER 1MB

fi U 4 EDA -F : A till

CM 1598 5A-Ruit)

1)28 CBLDH P1C:PLIT K«KZjY

Ufa 1688 CP-'XliIF 1MB THE1 LOCATE X _ KCjY

1948 IF SKI TKEI LOCATE (1+1?) ,

(Y+YC1

% 1 ■ IMP

■■m

,CD

iPP:IF PPOXB THEH 1561

wi -1 £ 1 S HH- V -I' ■ T F u\ if H TBRnTH J AAA T E 1 If U U

iff 1818 PPP- XI : IF DEB TIER t DC ATE l,Y-Y

fit

1158 CRLDR PIClPLBT K+IZ # Y+TC

CPPP

a l

1568 P1C=P1C*KC1 :P3C=PJC*HC2

■ a r j f j> |t k , u j _ T p jj\ ava mi in \ Af a T UF II -t AJIjI T

u5 18Z8 l- _ Xl:IF KJX8 AMR Y>XB THEN 1SCAT

1978 IEXT «

E I-RC,¥-TC,L

i j.

1988 FBI KZ'XB Tfl XC

Til 1 fiTD T F CA-FA ni> t*-|t|| AD *1A-I THFH 1
III lBjff Ir UK JH-rrr UK jI-L IHE.II 1

1958 LOCATE X+K2,Y f PiC: LOCATE H-t|i, Y+T

Er AS

518

C.PIC

t ji ic j h faI ill nnjiji-

fit 1648 EHDPROC

1IB8

YClr (PIC-P1C1

{1 Jj A*TlAl. ■AAA All JftU

5P 1658 PBGC PL A SUA

1818

FDR Y2=XB Tfl YC

IV 1668 PORE 714*255

1IZ8

IF PEER f 764] 0255 TIER PBP

:EOT0

Ac li/B EIEC 5ETSRH

2128

U F 4 E BA ■ 11 UM*M — ■ Pk II J, Ajf J

HE 1608 lUICL-IRUtXl

1128

COLD ft PIC

un r caa jt - wo.
HP 1*78 B-EB

INS

LOCATE mm, CY+Y2]|PF

ail 11QD t C tT-C tilt A tVtC TVBCiCATA 1AT.D

us J/Bll ir Ifltfl LKtC iiraibuiu iojo

2158

IF mm TIER 2878

fit iiti tE (T-( tUCk faMllEr t^R r jtn EDI EHi T

5H 1718 If 5T-6 TKEI MUE 5CR, 5CA,5CLER:G

2868

PLAT X+KliY+Yl

RID 19JB

2B7R

P1C=P1C+Y€1

Til i inn r_n n u^iji t n lira jj- Ttrn un

TO 17ZB FAR H-KB TO HID STEP XC

ZP8R

REST Yl

18 1718 FOR Y=XI TO BEX STEP YC

2198

IEXT 12

AI 174 B IF ST^JEl THEM A-RARP IIS7-H5J Jt^A

Lff

ZtBB

BEKT Y

H0& NUMCL

2118

IEMT X

TP 1758 IF ST=II TIER A=A4R^I-A MR RltW

2128

MUE SCBfSCR^CUR

2138

PIIE 764,255

CZ 176B IF %UtI TRE1 A=4«R5:B=BUKL'(A H

2148

R1:AB5IR51

0» NURCU

2158

ERRPRDC

LT 1771 IF ST=4 TH£I EXEC TYP4

2188

FSOC CYCLE

Page 6's New Atari. User

Til

2178 EXEC SfTGRH

Pt GOitJ 2Z1R

11 Li

2188 FDR R=7B4 Tfl 712 ! PARE R,XR:REKT R

tO Z548 PARE 764, Z55

2198 MVE SCR^CBiSCLEI

Ik Zbbl lRPPROC

2288

5=144 1 PPP=H ; CR=X1 : 5TP=XB 1 5A=H : C

AH TCCCJ AAfhn f Tt EC

HfXl:5S=5A:LLP=rll

PIT II — VA ■ U — C ■ KE wWB ■ J -1 Ell t r(l

VI Zb/B X-f.B:Y-5:BEr-A8:L2-LER IE?)

2218 PIKE 714,255

TiT 4FAA Ai A: — va ■ ■ c ^vb ■ irn— 4 a ■ fi n i-— v n

IE 1588 RE-X8;<F^BSRfU-!tlt8FI-X8

2228 IF PEEK (784] 0255 THER 5IP=ZI

IU a r-MH n-n-E T T TA0 V i WM- ■ -A Ml ■ AIM ,

JR Zb?B P85ITI8I XljXl :? M R:R H 'E5

2238 IF STPrXl TKEI 2228

HI 2DBB BPEH BXljIjAflj^B

2248 POKE 764,255

fll TEIS TlfnJIT WT-C M.C

CV ZR1B IHP1I1 •Xl f P$

2258 S=5r5A SPOKE 77, XI

fv 2628 Ir US lb, 16 J -"FREE 5ECTBI5" TRER Z

2281 ALT =XI ElF (5 Ml lo-»] All CK=-X

C CB

1 THE! ALT=lli5A^5A;5=5*5A

fit 4CTB ti — . irAi rn£ mi: nn

JY ZtiB rl-UAL iR? 113,171]

2271 IF (SB)X8 ARB ALT=K11 ABEf LLPzXl

UP 41 11 Tt ib £ il i 1 71 /\ r/ lirn 141. T uc H J*E — n

NC 264B IF DS 111,133 (>ES [>C2,L23 TKEI OF-D

TRER 5-5*14

r tKl ;8FU-QFI|tEL J GOTO 2118

LBfll

2281 IF 5)255 THEB 5=5-258

PI 4 f f ft UFirUt j vi . yru.yrii 1 ri

GR 2658 BF-KFtXI :Rf|.RFU*fL

tfB

2298 IF 5<X8 TKEI 5=5*256

II 1 If fit TP IIP ff P ^RpE" ■ AAf fff f Ai tt AfaA A> Jl

RJ 26GB IF HF165 TIEI PA5ITIIR B,t;? 15(3

i 1 r

2381 IF G5P=H Alt CI=Xi TREK -MBE 71

5 # 7B6W?P0ffE 785J5SE8T8 Z34B

PL E" "fkE "3 Oi ft-U A¥l ■ IE IJ-— A A T U E" II 4*... U A ■* JL ■ U Hit"

Dt 2678 T-T+Kl : IF Y-21 THEI 1=1+18 :Y=5

2 III IF G5P=XI All CH-Xl THEM MUE 71

nn *c*n r BTfl

RH ZfIB iBTD 2618

6,795,7 : POKE 712,5: GOTO ZI48

TU 4caa pi nee *vi

In 2191 CL05E 871

2U9

IF CDi-Xl ThER mm 7B9 J 7iS > 2:P0l

if fl A >AA AJ|{ fff| At Jiff Af-lb- - JA APF II ■ M h. a J I'm Mm

XC Z7SB F85ITI8B ISjXZ:? RFUf USM ill "J

E 718,5:G0Tfl 2340

■ f j [■ I " T Air i d TE Hf /Wl TUUH A* U _-||

RP;" file"; JIF IrUXl TIEI T "s"

23X8

'PBUE 788,717, K2^P0RE 788,5

GI 2718 P85ITIQB XI, Xii? 05(X1,X31 ;" fpfl

Z34B

PA85E PPP

1158

IF PEEIT7643 025S THEI 2371

5i 27Z8 PB5ITIBB 15, XI:? OFu, used in "J

n i

2188

GOTO 2258

DFj" Ithsfj !IF 8FUX1 THEI ? "$"

2178

A=PEER 12143

[IT 41TB IAIE fBB Vfl

Vf JfJo POKE CBRjKB

2188

IF A=Xt THEI LLP=LLP

JB Z74B PBSlilBI 5>22)IIPBT "FiltflANf 11 |R

an
PO

2398

IF A=33 THEI CD=CD

2 IBS

IF A:2t THEB 2548

UEJ 4TED ilUf! tit

* I75B PBKE CBRjXI

2418

IF 11=55 AMR PPP<1I THEI PfP=PPP+X

fit 2769 IF D5-" TREI REF-X1 :E0TQ 2798

i- 11 bttd r-#- ■ u 4 j 11 ual h II - P J — 1 fit ERL £l

KB 27/fl r $ (XI j 1 41 R ! . Ll-LEI 1 D 5 1

Did

2428

IF A=5* ARD FPP>X8 THEB PPP=PPP-X

TIU 4 KB C £ fWT Vtll 4 m _ It J*f t 1 It ■ HTJtt t tt

VY 2788 F> (X2 ,X2tL1] -R5 (XI j Lll • F5(X3*LljX

2+LlHZl-E¥IXl f L21

2411

IF A=12 TRER 5TP=X1:PAU5E XI

TC ill! CHA PtfH JL Jl

25 27TB E IS PR DC

2448

IF A=39 IHER 5A--5A

G5 2818 PRDC IIKTRP

f 1

r j

245 H

IF 0=44 TKEI CKt-CII

PC ZB1R FIRE 18 i 112' PAKE 53774^112

2468

•55=55 ilF A=E TIER 55=55-71

if t n ji jiq PTUrPLnn ji jl

YZ 2828 El DPR DC

247B

IF ft=7 THEM SS=55+X1

M. ZS3B P6KE CBRjXl

2488

IF 55IXB TKEI 55=255

RH 2848 f :? :T "Errtr ) M ;EIR

249R

IF 55)255 THEI 55=XB

HU 2*58 1 j? "Any he? to restart"

2588

IF 055=55 THE! 2538

XI 2B8B GET A : TRAP 2t3l:tBTR 98

2518

IF SAttt 1HEM 5A=-55;G8T0 2531

2528

5A=55

Page &' s New Atari User

Features

and

MURPHY'S VARIATIONS

A personal selection by Kevin Cooke

Many people have heard of n Murphy's
law"; that strange phenomenon that
seems to ensure that the worst pos-
sible scenario will always take place. Howev-
er, many people stQ] haven't heard of "Mur-
phy's Laws of Computlng" H despite having ex-
perienced them many times before.
To help you recognise these laws, and to
narrow the possibility of you experiencing
them again, here is a list of some of the
variations I have incurred.

1. YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO
FIND THE DISK THAT YOU WANT

Too true! You arc certain to look through an
entire disk box before finding the program
that you want - it will always be the disk at
the back of the box. However, when you m-vi
look for the disk and start from the back of a
box, It wtlJ magically appear at the front
again!

2. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A DISK BOX
TO STAY NEATLY ORGANISED

So. you've finally get fed up with looking
through an entire disk box to find the disk
that you want, eh! What can you do then?
Ah- ha! Why not devise a fail-safe storage sys-
tem? You then spend hours organising prog-
rams into alphabetical order. Games are put
into one box, utilities Into another and PD
into another. You spend a day printing num-
bered labels so that you can easily find the
disk s correct position when putting it away.

Then you come back after a long day out and
find that someone else has used almost every
disk and totally ruined your carefully organ-
ised system. Not only are disks scattered
everywhere but the ones that HAVE been put
away are tn the wrong boxes!

3. LOCKING YOUR DISK BOX WILL
NOT HELP

Fed up of having your disks messed up, you
decide to use the keys so kindly supplied with
your disk box, Unfortunately, as you had to
hide the keys lo stop anyone else from finding
them, you also forgot exactly where it was
that you hid them! In desperation, you try to
remove the disk box lid by removing the hing-
es. This is where you encounter law 4

4. YOU GLUED THE HINGES IN
PLACE SO THAT THEY WOULDN'T
KEEP FALLING OFF

This one explains itself. How were you
meant to know that one day you might
actually WANT the hinges to fall off?

Page 6's New Atari User

5, CONFUSION ALWAYS OCCURS
OVER FILENAMES

At least you might eventually find the keys
to your disk box - the effect of losing them
can eventually be overcome. Not so with los-
ing a disk file! How many times have you
written a brilliant program or novel and saved
it to disk, only to accidentally save a new file
straight over it with the same name? Again ,
this brings us onto the next rule.

8. THE BITS OF COMPUTER THAT
YOU KEPT AROUND FOR SPARES
WILL NEVER COME IN HANDY

In fact, all they'll do Is clutter up your
already Limited storage space. Not only is each
part shaped so LhaL it can't be stored in a
room-efficient way, can you ever see yourself
needing the parts from E1G I IT broken joys-
ticks?

6, ONLY FILES THAT ARE NOT
BACKED UP WILL BE LOST

Of course you didn't. You're hardly likely to
make a silly mistake when you've been up all
night and have only stopped typing because
you Ye too Ured to press the keys, are you?

7. IF YOU BUY A PRINTER, YOU'LL
START TO USE ENOUGH PAPER
TO DESTROY A RAINFOREST

At first, buying a printer seemed like a good
idea. You can finally show someone what you
spent the weekend doing instead of going out
- you'll never have to carry around your com'
plelc computer set-up and a convenient
power source again! However, you soon real-
ise that the printer isn't such a dream - it can
really turn into a nightmare! As you'll never
have got around to keeping a source of scrap
paper nearby,, you'll start to print even your
rough drafts on your best quality paper. The
problem here is that you'll never spot all of
the mistakes on your first print - you'll need
to print the same piece at least three of four
times before you finally get the message that
you should check through the WHOLE of the
document before you print another copy. My
bin must sometimes feel like an office supply
shop with all of the paper it seems to store.

9. SOFTWARE THAT YOU PAID
OVER £10 FOR WILL SUDDENLY
DROP IN PRICE TO UNDER E5

This is not only annoying but also costs you
money in a way. However* don't think that by
waiting you can save money. It is a fact that
should you not buy a piece of software
straight away, the company will either close
down or will sell out. You can't Win!

10. TEN MINUTES PROGRAMMING
WILL LOSE YOU TEN HOURS
SLEEP

This is one of the worst of the bunch - it can
get at you in two different ways. Not only will
the ten minutes that you were supposed to be
staying up to finish the ' keyboard Input
routine"' turn into at least an hour, but when
you do finally get to bed< it will be impossible
not tn dream about better ways of doing
something that you previously programmed.
Watch out for nightmares about Data Proces-
sing and high score save routines!

So, there are a few to watch out for. There
are many more - I'll leave you to discover
them I

Page 6's New Atari User

The CLASSIC

As we return from the planet Demon we
jind ourselves with the opportunity to
eryoy some fun and relaxation. The
Pudoso call fun the lifeblood of entertainment.
So without further delay, it's time for some
fun..,

FUN FOR TWO

Otic of the many new disks recently added to
the Page 6 Library is a collection of two player
games entitled FUN FOR TWO. There arc
five games for you to enjoy with a friend.

FINDING FLAGS

The first game on the disk is one of my
favourite two player games for the Atari 8-bit.
CAPTURE THE FLAG was featured as an
Antic disk bonus back in October 1989, It is
an all -action game in which you must race
through a maze to collect a Hag and return it
safe ly to your home base.

The screen layout is well designed. The top

with
Stuart Murray as
your Tour Guide

half contains the two display windows. The
green player Is on the left with the purple
player alongside. Capture the Flag is a dual-
display game, i.e. both players race for the
same flag In the same maze, but they each
have their own display window which shows
the area of the maze they are in.

Below the display windows is the scanner.
This shows the location of each player in the
maze. Very handy for getting your bearings if
lost in a section of the maze!

At the bottom of the screen, the "Flags Cap-
tured" and "Ammo" for earn player is display-
ed. You begin a game with four shots of
ammo. A player can blast a hole in the maze
wall with each shot of ammo.

Capture the Flag begins with both players at
their respective home base. The green player
is at the top left of the maze and the purple
player Is at the top right. The flag is at the
bottom centre.

The game is a mad race th rough the maze to
capture the flag. Try not to use ail of your
ammo in getting to the flag - you may need it
on your return! When a player captures the
flag, the other player automatically possesses
unlimited ammo. This means than while re-
turning the flag to your home base you have
to watch out for the other player who can
blast holes through any wall in the maze...
and shoot you I

If you arc shot whilst carrying the flag, it is
dropped where you stand and you are then
returned to your home base. The other player
can then pick up the flag and head for home
(with only limited ammo). It is then his or her
turn to watch out for you as you shoot your
way through the maze.

When a player manages to make it back to
home base carrying the flag, the round is

Page G's New Atari User

won, A tune plays and an Atari flag is raised
in the winner's display window. The first play-
er to capture five flags becomes the cham-
pion. The maze changes on each round so you
never know the direct route to the flag.

Movement of your player within the display
window is quite jerky. Sound and graphics
are very average. Colours are limited. Howev-
er, the garncpiay is outstanding! Capture the
Flag Is two player action at its best! it is
frantic, funny and quite simply fantastic! Who
cares about the graphics, animation or sound
when a game is this fun to play !

players play on the same screen and must
co-operate to complete a level. Player 1 is in
control of a bat covering the left-hand side of
the screen. Player 2 controls another bat on
the right. Watch out for the arguments when
someone misses the ball! One Player & Conv
puter mode plays in a similar manner The
only difference is the computer controls the
right-hand bat

Unicum is smooth and colourful and fea-
tures lots of levels. Jt is a hot PD version of
Arkanoid.

CLASSY BREAKOUT

Moving an, the next game on the Fun For
Two disk is a German program by the name of
UNI ClIM, This Is a very professional presen-
tation of Breakout for one or two players. The
object is to use a bat (or bats} to hit a bail up
the screen and knock ou t coloured blocks.
Clear all the blocks and you move onto the
next level,

Unlcum is very much in the same mould as
Imagined Arkanoid. Occasionally, a letter will
fall from a block that has been hit by the ball,
The on-screen instructions are in German so
here are descriptions, in English, of the
effects caused by catching the letters with
your bat:

$ = Slow (the ball slows down}
L = Laser (you can shoot the blocks)
K = catch (the ball sticky to your bat fur a

few seconds)
D - Double [your bat doubles In length)
N * Next level (yon advance one level)
£ = Extra life
B = Bonus score
? = Extra life or bonus score

There are four play modes in Unicum: One
Player, One Player & Computer Two Player
arid Demo.

The Two Player mode is a lot of fun. Both

Fage G's

DUELLING TANKS

Next up on Fun For Two is EXWALL, a
version of the classic tank battle game from
Combat on the Atari VCS. One player starts
at the left, the other at the right. In between
arc many shaped walls. The object of Exwall
is to shoot your opponent's tank before he
gets yours.

There are two types of wall - orange and
blue. You can shoot orange walls with your
tank. Blue walls are indestructible. However,
by shooting and reversing at the same time
you can change a blue wall to orange allow-
ing you to shoot your way through it. You can
also create an orange wall in front of you with
this option which means you can make a
quick tactical retreat if under fire from your
opponent.

The graphics and sound are very basic and
look like a type-in game from the early 1980s.
The gameplay is too slow to hold your interest
for more than a few battles, however the bat-
tlefield designs are not bad and add a strate-
gical element to the game,
Exwall is almost a good version of Combat*
However, It Is let down badly in that you can
only fire in one direction! This, added to the
criticisms mentioned above, makes for a poor
rating. With a bit more effort this could have
been worth a few blasts. As it is, Exwall is
simply a sector filler.
New Atari User 47

MORE TANKS

Next up is another attempt at the Combat
tank battle. TANK DUEL is an old Compute!
program which looks and pEays like the ori-
ginal Combat.

The screen layout consists again of two
tanks facing each other and obstacles in be-
tween. This time there are walls and bushes.
The object Is again to blast your opponent
from the screen before he blasts you.

TANK DUEL is a lot more fun to play than
Exwall. It has the advantage of eight-way fir-
ing which makes for better quality garneplay.
Also, you can hide in the bushes and pounce
on your opponent The mazes are well desig-
ned and the explosions are nicely animated.
The only criticism I have is that the bombs
are pathetic and Look like the blips in Pong.

1 liked TANK DUEL It s a good two player
game and a reaso nab le version of Co mbat. It's
also very indicative of a Compute] type -in. i.e.
high quality. However, you can't beat the real
stuff. For a mean tank battle, get yourself a
VCS arid a Combat cartridge!

you move on to the options menu. There are
loads of game options available. Select Option
4 (Easy] and you're away I

The game is basically horizontal Pong wllh
aliens, bombs, springs, lasers, birds, missile
launchers, etc. You control a paddle in front
of a wall. The object is to not. let the ball (or
any objects) past your wall, if anything gets
past, your plunger at the left of the screen
moves down one notch. When It has moved all
the way you have lost the game.

The various objects add spice to an already
addictive format. Aliens throw the ball back at
you. Mama Birds eat through your wall. Mis-
sile Launchers fire missiles at your wall. Sud-
den Death Hocks cause a final play off by
dropping both plungers. There is always
something going on! Presentation is good
with colourful graphics and various sound
effects. Unfortunately, the garneplay is let
down slightly by Jerky animation of the ball.
The ball is central to any game of this type. If
only the author had created a smooth scroll-
ing ball then this game would have been a
real cracker. This gripe askle. TV Jaji t* im-
pressive. It s not the ultimate version of Pong
but fun nevertheless.

WAY BEYOND PONG

All good things must come to an endand so
wc come to the final game on Fun For Two.
TV JAJI (pronounced JAA-GEE} is a 1990 s
version of that 70s classic ftong, Full docu-
mentation is included and can be read or
printed from the main menu.

The author. Thomas Starace, describes TV
Jaji as "the ultimate souped up side -ways
version of the classic volleying game with ev-
erything but the kitchen sink". He worked on
the program for many years and had planned
to release it In Antic before the magazine
ceased publication. He has now released It as
Shareware with a Registration Fee of S5.

TV Jaji begins with a long and impressive
animated sequence which creates a good
atmosphere. Press your Joystick button and
4ft Page 6*s New

Overall, Fun For Two is a scrumptious diet
of frenzied two player fun, Capture the Flag
and Unicum are wonderful examples of how
good public domain software can be( Tank
Duel and TV Jaji are good efforts which add
to the value of the disk.

CLASSIC PD ZONE MTNG: 79%

As we approach Earth we can see the benefit
of Jim* AH crew members and passengers are
relaxed and rejuvenated, ready for the busy
times ahead. After all, all work and no play
makes your Atari 8- bit a dull circuit. Give it
some juice without delay!

In the words oj James T. Kirk, "It was „.fun."

The disk reviewed was:

DISK 250 - FUN FOR TWO •

Atari User

HOT® HI AIL
TIME

by Ian Finlayson

DAISY-DOT

FONT EDITOR

good in the morning as they did the night
before, only then realising that the original is
no longer recoverable.

This is easily avoided. When you load a font
into the editor save it Immediately onto a new
disk under a new name. All your changes Eire
then made to the new font and the original is
still intact when you want to use it again.

If you are already enjoying Daisy -Dot II
there are further treats in store, You
have probably tried all the fonts that
came on the DDU disk, and no doubt you like
some and hate others, If you are not satisfied
with this small selection there are many more
on the Daisy Dot Accessory Disk (L )Stf 22) .
Even with all these fonts you will probably
feel the need for something different at some
Lime. You may not want to start from scratch
on a new font, and indeed this is a surprising-
ly difficult task, but tt is comparatively easy to
make small changes to the detail in a font to
improve it for your personal use.
The DDI1 font editor docs not need much
explanation. The best way to learn how to use
it is Jo play, but. there are one or two points
that are worth remembering if you want to
avoid heartache.

DON'T CORRUPT
GOOD WORE

Before you go on to extensive font design you
will want to view and modify some of your
stock fonts using the DDI! Editor. This is flne>
but you do not want to change a font and
then find that your changes don't look as

GETTING STARTED

The font editor is no side two of the DDI1
disk. First start your computer with a DOS
disk, then load the font editor using DOS
option L. The editor file is called FONTE-
DfT.COM.

Now you can load an existing font. Put your
disk with the fonts into your drive and if you
know the name of the font Just type L and you
wlU get a prompt Load Font: Drive: in the box
at bottom right of the screen. Type 1 for your
first drive for another number if you are one
of the few who have a multiple drive system!]
and then the font name. You do not have to
add the .NLQ extender as this Is assumed by
the program. If you have forgotten the name
of the font file you can browse the disk's file
index by pressing the number of the drive
(usually 1). This brings up the first item from
the directory in the prompt box. Each time
you press a key the next entry from the direc-
tory is displayed, it Is not possible to bad the
font directly from this prompt. You have to
note the name and then go back to the L
procedure described above.

Once the character set is loaded a single
character will be displayed in a box on the left
of your screen ready for editing. The name of
the font that is currently In memory is shown
at top right of the screen and the letter or
character that is currently being edited is also

Page 6's New Atari User

shown. This may seem unnecessary, but if
you make extensive modi ftcati ons your char-
acter may not look anything ]jke the standard
alphabetical letters. You may make a charac-
ter set that combines capital letters and bullet
points or other symbols for presentation pur-
poses, or a series of patterns for borders or
separators.

A BIT OF EDITING

It is possible to edit characters using the
cursor keys, space bar and Return key, but ft
is much easier with a Joystick, In either case
you edit one point at a time. Daisy Dot hand-
les proportionally spaced as well as fixed
pitch fonts, SO different characters can be
different widths. The height of the grid on
which the letters are: drawn is always 16 cells,
but the width can vary from 1 to 19. For a
ftxed pitch font just ensure that all characters
are the same width - this is useful when you
are preparing a document with columns in, as
it allows you to position columns accurately
and consistently.

If you are using the joystick you just move
the cross shaped cursor to the position you
require then press the fire button to draw the
point. If you want to erase just press the
space bar to switch from drawing to erasing.
There Is an on-screen display showing
<Draw> or <Erase> on the right near the top
which reminds you which mode you axe in.

The more difficult option is to use the cursor
keys, The space bar works the same - switch-
ing from draw to erase - and the cursor keys
In combination wilh CTRL move the cursor
(the + and - cursor keys bring up the next and
previous characters In the set if you don t
hold down CTRL). Return is used Instead of
the joystick fire button to fill or erase a point
SO Page 6's New Atari User

LETTER SPACING

You will remember that the spaces between
characters are set in Daisy- Dot H so there Is no
need to Include the space between characters
when designing letters for use in DDII. The
character must span the full width of the grid
you have selected. If you leave space down the
side of the character and DDll then adds
more you will end up with unevenly spaced,
untidy looking and difficult to read print
The flexibility of this spacing can be put to
good use. One of the fonts on the accessory
disk is called Tile and it has a line drawn
down one side of each c haracter and across
the bottom to give a result that looks like
miniature Scrabble tiles.

OTHER CONTROLS

On the righL of the screen is a short list of
controls. Two further lists arc accessed by
pressing Select. Some of these have been
mentioned already and most are self explana-
tory r The complete list is:

- Decrease width

- Increase width

- [minus]

- Previous character

- Ne ict character

- Goto specific character

- Transcribe

- Restore character

1 to 8

- Directory of drive

- Save font

- Load font

-clear Window

- clear Memory

- Print character

- Quick print

NORTH OF SCOTLAND ATARI USER GROUP

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NOSAUG - AN ATARI S-BIY US Eft OROLTP/

F
V
H

CTRL+V
CTRL+H
X

print Font
Vertical flip
Horizontal (lip
Vertical Scroll
Horizontal Scroll
cXit to DOS

I will amplify one or two of these,
T [Transcribe) brings in another letter. For
instance, if you are about to work nn the
lcrttcr R you can go to the K position in the
font and Transcribe the beautiful P you have
already created thus eliminating most of the
work needed to create the new K.

R (Restore cliaracter) reverses the current
editing of one character. It docs not neces.'^ar-
ily rcsiore it to the state when you loaded the
font, only to the state at the beginning of the
current edit of that character, This means
that if you edit a character for a second time
in the same session you ean only restore to
the state at the end of the Arst edit.

ter while M (clear Memory) wipes the current
character set from memory [take care - this is
irreversiblelj .

The flip and scroll features are most useful
for graphical work such as border styles
where you want to set up a pattern

FINALLY

Even if you never create a masterpiece of a
font for yourself it Is well worth playing with
Fontedit. It will give you a real Insight into the
problems and constraints that the designers
of typefaces have to fate. Some letters are
corn para lively easy to craft., but there arc al-
ways some tricky ones and it can be very
difficult to achieve a style that is consistent,
legible and good looking across the whole of
the upper and lower case alphabets, the num-
erals and punctuation marks.

W (clear Window) clears the current charac- I hope you will give it a try. Have fun!

page &s New Atari User

The Accessory Shop

ISSUE 71

CONTINUING CLASSICS

Although there is no new software nowadays there is still a chance
to buy the classics from yesteryear. Stocks are dwindling though and
' this could be the last chance to complete your collection * Buy now!

ASTEROIDS

Asteroids surround you! Use
your photon cannon to defend
your spacecraft from a held Of
asteroids which become progres-
sively smaller^ swifter and more
dangerous. Watch out for enemy
saucers too! For 1 to 4 players

ROM CARTRIDGE

OUR PRICE £5,00

LIMITED STOCKS

DEFENDER

An all-time classic from the arcades
Aliens have swarmed over your planet
ahernpang to capture humanoids and
transform thero into destructive
mulant&. Fortunately YOU command
Defender, the meet deadly spaceship
ever Keep an eye on the radar for the
nan anack wave. 1 or 2 player

ROM CARTRDIOE
OUR PRICE £5.00

LIMITED STOCKS

GALAXIAN

Swarms ol Drones, Emissaries and
Hornets lead the way in a:iau«. and
protect Che Commanders who guide
1he force. Your only hope is to blast
ihem out of ihe sky before ttiey
destroy you. True classic excite-
ment thai can still giva you sweaty
paflrns, 10 skill levels

ROM CARTRIDGE

OUR PRICE £5.00

LIMITED STOCKS

MILLIPEDE

Creepy Crawly bugs like jumping sp«d-
bhe. buzzing bees, bouncing beetles,
mosquloes. dragc-nlhes, inch worm*
and earwigs have nvaded your Irhle
garden patch and you have to blast
last to get rid oF them! Fast action
graphics and great sound. Us* your
Trak-Ball for even greafar play power.

ROM CARTRIDGE
OUR PRICE £5.00

limited STOCKS

KABOOM

The Mad Bomber is back and
intent on blasting you to kingdom
come unless you can get your
buckets of water out in time to
catch and diffuse the bombs.
On* of the simplest concepts yet
highly entertaining, especially for
the kids,

ROM CARTRDIGE

OUR PRICE £3.95

UMiTED STOCKS

MUSIC PAINTER

An enertrng educational program that
helps to teach music by using colours
instead ol notes. Change me rrtteen
supplied songs to feature different in-
struments, make the notes .Linger Of
shorter or transcribe ynur own songs
Mo musical knowledge required io
make your own great music

DISK ONLY
OUR PRICE £4.95

LIMITED STOCKS

POLE
POSITION

THE racing game for the Atari
Classic. Vary LitHe has im-
proved on ihis winning formula
that brings untold fun to young
and old alike,

ROM CARTRIDGE

OUR PRICE £5.00

TENNIS

-or cranes and backhands, driving
approach shots, angled volleys, over-
head smashes and irxky lobs - you've
got al the Slrokes in Tennisl Here's
trie action packed game that chal-
lenges you to play at yu jr best. Play
singles againsl thB computer Of
another player or doubles against
another player

ROM CARTRIDGE

OUR PRICE £5.00

UMiTED STOCKS

10-PRINT

Owners ol the 1029 printer just have
to have the superb utility lhat enables
program listings To oe primad out wrtn
all the conlror characters jiusi as you
see in New Alari User} as well as
printing « any choice of font. Full in-
structions are included for you to print
out your letters and other documents
in any font you choose

DISK ONLY

OUR PRICE £4.95

PACE & EXCLUSIVE

Page 6's New Atari User

CASSETTES at just 95p each!

ISO x

A great darts challenge Eight Oppo-
-ents. digitised speech, two player op-
lion, feve joyslck control, full matchplay
icy - >i0.. a sar-se of h jmou*. £upert>
payability

BOMB FUSION

A terror St gang has planted bombs
throughout the Sellerscan? Nuclear Pro-
cessing PUV1 a n -:3 you have Id go in
and save the plant and possibly the
Northern Hemisphere from destruction

DESPATCH RIDER

Joirt the growing band cf street demons
who terrify the population of 1he tug
cities 10 get the parcels th rough Plan
your moves 10 make some money, but
don't lake 100 long - 1rme is always
short. Gain an rnstanl macho riling and
be a despatch rider wiih th* simulation

FEUD

To win at Feud you must "oul-speir
your rival Wizard Learoric. In Kieke's
herb garden you will tmd the ingredients
far your spells but tread carefully as Jt
strange things can '">£CifMin m ihis game
ol mage and mystery

FOOTBALL MANAGER

FealuiOS include Transfer Market fui
League tables. injuries: save game
facility; promwon and relegation; FA
Cup malches; managerial rating; 4 OWi-
sions; as many seasons and you like;
pick your team using seven skiH levels.

OHOSTBUSTERS

Has anybody seen a ghost 1 * Matter Ot
fact yes they have! At this very moment
hundreds or ghosts are malung iheir
way to the infamous spook central.
Only you can save the world from a
disaster ol biolical proportions.

XGUN LAW

Four months or bloody alien attacks
have taken their toll ■ all 1he surviving
inhabtf ants have tied end arson attacks )£
have been made on your weapon
siores You are left 10 lighl alone
against ruthless and bloodthirsty killers
with just a single machine gun

HENRY'S HOUSE

LAtle Henry has shrunk He must naw
gaie his way through the royal house-
hold to find the cure Avoiding all the
obstacles in his path. 1rom terrible
toothbrushes, through pestilerous par-
rots and chefs chasing chickens. Ed a
final encou'Her wnh ihe vitous vampire!

KIKSTART

The ultimata ofl-road motorbike sc "am-
ble simulator. Guide your nder carefully
over the obstacles in this ail action
simulator tor 1 player against the com-
puter or 2 payers figainst eacn other as
well a? (he clock

KNOCKOUT BOXING

Challenge for the Heavyweight Cham-
pionship ot the World by boxing your
way pest nine progressively more skilut
opponents. You will need speed a/id
skill to deliver stomach punches, points
scoring head jabs or deadly upper cuts
Your must keep your guard up or the
referee will count you out

LOS ANGELES SWAT

Rescue the hostages from the terrorist
gangs ng oul in West L A Clean
up the streets. Blow away the bad guys
and be a hero on network T V.! Fail and
you won 1 be coming back 1o walch n
All action joystick bending torrftal for
those with 1he skill 1o survive*

MILK RACE

Cycling 1 .000 rnies is no mean Feat -
and you could end up feeing pretty
exhausted by (he time you ve linished
playing this superb race Simulation de-
signed wnh 1he Milk Race in irind

MR DIO

An old labourite in which Mr Dig has 1o
dig 1or hidden lood supplies til the
'Meanie' territory below ground As he
digs he can eat cherries or Crush the
Meames wnh apples Special ireats
earn extra pomls and a Magic Power
Orb can Kill all the Meames

NINJA

Blasis the bett oft all other martial arts
games 1 Tnar's all i! says on lha nlayl
Someone sure reckons this is the best
punching, kicking, ducking and diving
game around

ON CUE

A challenging real life simulation which
combines Poet and Snooker on ihe
same cassette An absotule rnusl for
both enthusiasts and beginners alike. If

Ski have ever wanted 1o be a1 the
motile now s your chance

INVASION

Mobhre your units and prepare lor bat-
tle. This all action space cori'licl re-
quires s kit strategy and tactics You
must destroy the weather control station
in order 10 vnn ihe battle but every
move you make the enemy will counter,
and they're waning for you to sl£ up

PANTHER

Save the last humans on Xenon before
the alien hordes turn them into Sunday
roasll Take your ground art Ac*, shp
through this 3D scrolling mega shoot-
em- up vrfh greal graphics and unbe-
lievable soundtrack

PENGON

Can you save Penguin Wily tram Ihe
Ferocious mutam sea nons? Stun them
by knodung them against the walls or
crus?", Ifem 1o a hornly ng death with
sliding ice blocks. High speed arcade
action gams, great graphics and music

PLASTRON

Take your place in a small band or

E rates out to steal lossil fuels trom the
ggesl corporation in the galaxy. You
must guide your shuttle craft along the
surface of the planet Plastron to collect
as much 1uel as you can from Ihe
heavily defended mine lones and then
rendezvous, with the supply tank

PROTECTOR

Assigned to Fort Rucker. the US Army
Helicopter Training School your aim is
to become the bes1 chopper pilot Ihis
side of the Iron Curtain. Your mission
consists ot a strategic baffle o1 wns
between yoursetl and either another
jioi or a computer controlled RPV

ROGUE

You are the ROGUE. Your mission is to
search ihe Dungeons ol Doom for ihe
Amu let of Yendor In 1he dungpons you
will 1md many thngs to aid the guest Tor
1he Amulet You will also encounter
fearsome monsters and fiendish traps
that will chaienge alt your skills

REVENGE II

T he Mutated M fool high . Laser spitting
death camels have rebelled against
Iheir captors the Zzyajrians and are out
tor revenge! All action, highly graphical
snoot-em-up Irom Jefl Winter

ROCKFORD

The only true arcade version of the
classic game Boulderdash There are
tour levels on each or five different
worlds wrih lour screens on each level.
It al ados up to eigMy totally dflf erent
playing screens

SIDEWINDER II

It is 27 years since the final baffle of the
war with the aliens 27 years ol peace
have reigned m the Western Spiral Ami
of the CaUxy All this is about to
change. Step aboard your craft and ore-
pare 10 defend mankind m Ir.is al! action
space blast

SPEED HAWK

A smoothly scrolling arcade game m
which yoo must Oelend ihe rmg worlds
ol your solar system from space pi-
rates. You alone can pilot the s fugle
seater fighter to undertake ihe task of
Oestroying the mutant guardian thai
protects the Tleei C pirate ships

SPEED ZONE

Enter the Speed;one r- a Trantic de-
lence aoair.sl marauding alien ICrCe* A
survey ship sent inio me area comes
under attack As an enerny vessel
draws closer your "ST ARM RE" class
attack, craft is launched

MORE 95p CASSETTES
ON THE PAGE 56

Page 6's New Atari User

DISKS ... DISKS ...

PANZER GRENADIERS

In ihts exerting solitaire wangame you make the deci-
sions lar a regiment d theefite p,rnii?tJred mlantry
attached to the Panzer Gfenadiers. Your forces also
incluoe mortar, artillery. Panzer IV. Panther and Tiger
unite The Russian enemy is directed by the oompuler
which will fiercely challenge you with its own comjple-
ment of infantry, tanks and anti-lank guns. Three levels
ol dilticulfy. joystick control, h-res graphics

OUR PRICE £5.00
LANCELOT

Level 9 recreate the nme of wizards and the Knights ol
lhe Round Table in a three- pan adventure spannmg the
complete sagaol ihe cuesl tor the Holy G r ail. Superbly
researched and superbly written this lext adventure is
lull o1 atmosphere and highly recommended.

OUR PRICE £5.00
RAMPAGE

It's rough and tumble all the way as you control ihnee
incredibly na&iy characters wtiicfi Dear a remarkable
resemblance io King Kong, Godjilta aid Woli-man
Ihrough an orgy ol destruction in Chicago. New Yprk
and San Francisco. You have 1 50 days or destruction in
50 different cities. Time for some revenge!

OUR PRICE £3.95
THEE FACTOR

The E factor represents lhe amaum dI 1 time ihe energy
sources on lhe planers m our galaxy will lasi Mary
planets need emergency ruet capsules delivered ll ihey
are to survive. You must pkx the interplanetary course
and guide your craft through lhe quadrants lilled with
obstacles such as space mines, alien fighters and spin-
ning asteroids. Can you complete a mission eelore
another planet calls on your services ?

OUR PRICE £3-00

DRUID

Another Classic m winch, as Last of lhe Great Druids,
you wander through the Dungeons oi Acamantor with
you* mighly Golem by your side on a quest 10 destroy
ihe loi r demon princes. As you delve deeper into the
dungeons you will rind chests containing spells ol for-
midable power lo aid you and PentDgrams of Life which
will heal and revitalise you Exceltenl graphics and su-
perb gameplay make Ihis one of the best arcade games.

OUR PRICE £3.95

GAUNTLET THE DEEPER DUNGEONS

If you have the anginal Gaum lei disk then you will
know how good the game is and will warn to extend
play wilh the Deeper Dungeons. Over §00 new
dungeons are here lor you lo explore This is lhe way
ia revive your interest in Gauntlet and play on for many
more hours or daysl This is a dala disk only and
requires the original Gauntlet disk

OUR PRICE £2.95

NEW YORK CITY

Welcome lo The Big Apple. This hurried jungle ol steel,
concrete and glass bristles with fascinating sights and
more lhan its share ol danger, From lhe placid greenery
of Central Park, there is no cily m ma world like New
York, and boy are you about lo find thai out! As a
visiting tourist you only have a limited time to see all the
sighis. but New York City has a iflHe more excitement, a
little more danger in store lhan a mere sightseeing trip 10
Ihe zoo!

OUR PRICE £3.95
BALLBLAZER

The year is 3097 and you are lhe contestant m lhe most
competibve and by tar Ihe most popular sport in the
universe. Jump immediately into head-ia-head action
against a Inend or hone your skills against a selection d
Droids. Ehher way. you're in for the malch of the cen-
tury! Excellent graphics and split screen action have
made this one ol Ihe Atari classics.

OUR PRICE £3,95
JUNO FIRST

A Tasi and lunous space shooi 'em up translated Irom
Konamis early arcade machine ol the same name
Dozens ol alien craft will attack from alt sides and you
must os quick to bias! them away and earn your
bonuses. It you feel Ihat you are going lo die then you
can take lhe East reson and warp away through a
kaleidoscope ol colour Similar to invaders, thus fast
Shooi em up will appeal to any arcade game lanatic.

OUR PRICE £3.95
JUGGLES RAINBOW

A first computer experience tor children aged 3 to 6
ihat leaches ihe concepts of above, below, lelt and
nghrt plus tarter reccignmon allowing children 1o enjoy
learning whh colours and music and games they can
creale and play memselves

OUR PRICE £2.95
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS

Control James Bond through eighl last and furious
levels from Gibraltar to Afghanistan and you will encoun-
ter lhe SAS (friendly), the KGB (not so tnendly} and
enemy helicopters (very unfriendly!) You are up against
Brad vUhittaker, international arms dealer and megalo-
maniac. Necros, his ruthless sideluck and Kcshkov. the
double dealing KGB General. You may fall in love wilh
the beautiful Czech cellist Kara, but can you irus-t tier* 1

OUR PRICE £2,95

NIBBLER

Slinking ihrough an unknown land Nibbler finds himself
in an iridescent world ol constant change. As lime grows
short his body grows longer and he risks running mio
himself. Can he survive?

OUR PRICE £1.00

Page 6's New Atari User

ROM CARTRIDGES

AH brand new in original boxes, mostly shrink wrapped
ONE ON ONE FIGHT NIGHT

Play basketball wih iwo of America's top players in this
great sports simulation which features realistic offensive
and defensive moves, laiigue factors, hot sireaks, a Shot
clock, even instant replay and a shauenng backboard!
Like ihe game of basketball Hself. One-on-One rewards
you for playing with your head as well as your hands
Master the joystick moves, sharpen your liming and
hone your rellexes Jump! Shoot! Score

OUR PRJCE £6.00
US FOOTBALL

American Foolbail is a dig craze rn this country and yau
can now play ai home Qui smart tha darence, pass with
amazing accuracy, run wnh speed and apjilny, make
tackles, select offensive and defensive plays and more.
You can take on 1he computer in a practice game or
challenge a Inend to a dramatic video bowl game or
your own in a packed siadpum All ihe thrills or lhe
gridiron

OUR PRICE £6.00
SUPER BREAKOUT

Breakout was the original simple yet (dally addictive
game and ihis enhanced version will provide even mare
addictive lun Needs paddles

OUR PRICE £3.95

There are very few
ROM cartridges left
now for the Atari -
complete your collec-
tion while you can

Fight Night brings you all the thrills ol lhe boxing rng as
you lace five of the most brulaJ lighters ever. Ms five
separate battles are loial war with relentless action. The
Boxing ConstrudO' a lows you and your opponent 5a
create your own perfect boxers, selecting stamina, intel-
lect and style. Train, spar and step into the rng to pit
your perfect boxer against Ihe computer Or another
opponent.

OUR PRICE £6.00
POLE POSITION

Even/one has heard of Pole Position, the racing game
lhal inspired almost every racing game since. It may be
lhe original and some other games may have added
tealures but Pole Position still retains its challenge after
many years One z>\ ihase games that has exactly lhe
right balance of game play and graphics lo make il a
|classic ihat will last forever. II it is not in your collection,
make amends now!

OUR PRICE £5.00
HARDBALL

All lhe thrills of American baseball can be yours on a
summer afternoon in the ballpark. Sit behind home
plate, along the left field line, down the right Field line or
join the manager in the dugout. Look over the pitcher's
shoulder as he throws the next ball. You control all lhe
action of Ihe batsmen, pitchers and tieMers as you try
and battle your way la lhe lop of the league. An exciting
game for One or iwo players

OUR PRICE £6.00
BASIC CARTRIDGE

Some programs, especially some early public domain
programs won't run on Ihe XL/XE but they will if you
plug in the o d version or Basic

OUR PRICE £2,95

DISKS ...

SILICON DREAMS

Taking the role of Kim Humbert ey you are a leading
participant in the colonisation of Eden, a planet
prepared for human habitation by an advance guard
of intelligent robots who battle with the native and
highly aggressive fauna. In this highly structured
and realisifC environment you must move your mind
into (he twenty- third century. Silicon Dreams is three
excellent graphics adventures - SNOWBALL. HE-
TURN TO EDEN and TJHE WQRM IN PARADISE
from ihe masters. Level 9

OUR PRICE £5.00

ZORK1

The infocom classic and tha adventure game mat
changed the way all future adventures were written.
The Great Underground Empire of Zork is well docu-
mented by now and thousands of players have
become addicts graduating to Infbc0m"s more dtffi-
l:^ : adventures. Zo^k I is lhe ideal introductory I eve:
adventure for beginners or Those with a little experi-
ence. If you have never ventured underground be-
fore now is lhe lime to Cry. ifs never been cheaper
Lo expand your universal Classic original Infocom
yar^kagirg wilh excellent manual and a map.

OUR PRICE £2.95

Page &$ Sew Atari User

CASSETTES . . .

MORE 35 p CASSETTES

SILICON DREAMS

Taking the role ol Kim Kimbertey
you are a lead ng participant in the
colon 'sanor of Ed&n, a planel pre-
pared lor rurr.ar h-abiaiion by an
advance guard ol intelligent robots
wfio battle with the native and Highly
aggressive iauna in this highly
structured ar»d realistic environment
you must move your mind inlo the
trtenty-third cenlury. Silicon Dreams
is ihree excel len; graphics adven-
tures ■ SNOWBALL. RETURN TO
EDEN and THE WORM IN PARA-
DISE from me masters, Level 9

OUR PRICE £5.00

DECISION IN THE
DESERT

Take command at the Bantte of El
Alamem Vou can lead either side in
ins accurate simulation from ihe
creators ol M5Srik« Eagle

OUR PRICE £5.00
LANCELOT

Level 9 recreate 1 he lime ol wizards
and the Knights ol iha Round Table
in a ihree par: adventure spanning
the campleie saga d the quest tor
me He y Grail Superbly researched
and superbly wniten this iext adven-
Uro is lull o1 atmosphere and highly
recommended

OUR PRICE £5.00

BATTALION
COMMANDER

An exciting real-lime lactical game
with you as leucenan colonel in
charge ol an eniirs armoured carta ■■
lion. Choose trom five ditferem sce-
narios from a iraining mission
against a Soviet tan < ballalion to
laugh assignments against 1he
Chinese You can adjust Ihe relative
sirengths or your forces end the
apposition and cnoose Trom 40 diHe-
renl maps and 5 di lie rent scenarios.

OUR PRICE £2.95

STAR RAIDERS

Battle against r« the Zylon empire m
your slar ship in whai is protwdrjly tne
most famous computer game ever This
lul VB.-sdn ol the classic game nt5w
available on cassette compteie win lull
instnjc'iois Can y^u attend to be wrlh-
oul Ihe program thai people bought an
Atari lor?

TAIL OF BETA LYRAE

Our A-Z ol Alari Software series says
"The ultimata Scrajmbte" clone wilh Su-
perb graprtics and music ' A great hon-
30nlal scrollBr

CROSSFIRE

You are alone in a deserted city sur-
rounded by elans who shod! lasers
trom every direction You 'H have 10
concer|:ate c- w^-ere ihe sticks are
coming tiom otherwise you 'll be caught
in ihe CROSSFIRE One ol those lairty
simple yel highty addictive games.

OUR PRICE £2.95

MUGSHOT

Have some fun with yt>Ut $T Ctt&t-
mg lots of hileri&m 'magttsois' lo
entertain your femity an4 triihd*

* Extremely easy to use
•k Full documents lion

* Several Print options

* Creml fa th* kidtl
+ Co+our or Mortc

Treat the kids to a tun
program that wift keep
them quiet for hours.

Hon aifcifHfak/romPACE Gattht
LVWtlffl price o/jtist
DQN7 MtSSQUTi

TWILIGHT WORLD

Entor 1h* TwHighl World Equpped with
the latest in a, n A --gravity pads and Laser
weaponry, battle your way through each
of ihe eleven dudgeons oefaaiincj their
I *<nd.s " ly devicj s inhabitants along Ihe
way A game from Aran themselves i

UNIVERSAL HERO

Only seven seconds left tc save Ihe
planet! Universal Hero has 10 save his
skin and everybody etses by linding
bhs to repar a shuttle Id get Id a planet
10 p»ch up the spa-os. 10 rrorid a space
freighter which is ou1 ol conlral and
aboui to blow him and his chances ol
gon^ng bacK to earth to atoms

COLOSSUS CHESS 4

Claims 10 be the besi cbes-s prog-
ram Of flJI The wnlers o1 Sargort III
would disagree, burl lhere is no
doubt this is a fine chess simulation
particularly lor advanced players

OUR PRICE £2.95

ST SOFTWARE

Hdp your children with hair knowledge ol the
world or etr-snc yoji own universe

GEOGRAPHY TUTOR presents
rafifJS and £|atis,1ical dalabases ol all
oi the countries d the world

*. Colour or Mom

* Futty eCCUtrt* m*p*

* Check population size

+ Discover each country'* site
+ Hear National Anthems

* Quix opt/on* - {^entity com'
tries, ttpitmis tttd more

* Compare countries to find
which are Muslim Of highly
populated etc.

This excellent ettucnilnnnl
pTTKjmm is ncKL< available Jrom

PAGE G at ih* IJDW, price of
Just £3.95 - order your copy HOW!

ORDER ITEMS FROM THE ACCESSORY SHOP WITH THE ORDER FORM
ENCLOSED WITH THIS ISSUE OR WRITE TO
PAGES, P.O. BOX 54, STAFFORD, ST16 TOR
TELEPHONE ORDERS ACCEPTED OH 01 785 21392B USING ACCESS OR VISA

Page 6"s New Atari User

with John S Davison

SHARING
MIDI DATA

Ihavc losL oounL of the number of music
related programs published for the ST
over ihe years, and I've written about
many of them in these pages. The total ts
probably Into three figures by now. But
there's one thing about many of them I've
found extremely annoying - they use their
own proprietary flic formats for storing MIDI
data. This means that the incredibly wonder-
ful songs ynu nomposc with your Stoneberk
Sequencer and store on disk can t be read by
your friend's Scaflab sequencer and vice-
versa t so yotj can't easily swap files lo show
ofTyour work to each other.
Thai may have been the situation a few
years back, but in fact there's now a (airly
simple solution to the problem, The answer is
tr> have a common lilc format that any se-
quencer cari use as lone, as the music prog-
ram authors choose to implement it, that is
(and most now do). It's usually included as an
extra file format - sequencers still tend to use
their own native format for normal use for
performance reasons, but if fUe interchange
with another program is required then the
data can be saved out using a standard for-
mat. Hie idea isn'L new as there are parallels
in other areas of computer applications. For
instance engineering drawing programs have
standard files for interchanging technical de-
sign data between different applications* and

Rich Text. Format has been available for some
time now to move data between different word
processing programs.

STANDARD MIDI FILES

MIDI'S answer is the Standard MIDI FUe for-
mat Perversely, there are three standard for-
mats, not one. They're called, with stunning
originality. Format 0, Format 1, and Format 2
and are intended For use in different circums-
tances, depending on what you're trying to
achieve. However, not many music programs
support all three types. Format 0 and Format
1 are found on most top flight products, while
lower cost software often supports only For-
mat 0.

Format 0 Is the simplest in function. It con-
siders everything to be a single track, so any-
thing written out in Format 0 ends up with all
tracks merged together into one track, MIDI
channel identity is preserved, so the music
will still play as it did originally, however
when you read it into another program you 11
find there's only one track. High spec se-
quencers such as E-magJc s Notator usually
have a "split" function which separates out
the events for each channel and places them
on their own tracks again should you require
this. However, if your original sequence used
multiple tracks sharing a common MIDI
channel then splitting wouldn't work as there
would be no distinguishing feature to identify
which piece of data originally came from
where.

Format 1 gets over the limitation of shared
channels by implementing multiple track
support. Using Format ) if you write out a ten
track sequence then read It Into another prog-
ram which has Format 1 support you'll find
you still have ten tracks of MIDI data. This
means you donT have to mess around with
the splitting operation, nor can you n accide-

Page 6's New Atari User

n tally* destroy a track's independent Identity.

Format 2 Is quite ran:, allowing you to save
single independent tracks from within a muLli
track sequence and read them back in to
another appropriately equipped music appli-
cation. If you really warn this facility you ran
usually achieve a similar function via the
other formats in conjunction with judicious
use of the sequencer's editing facilities.

Before you ask - the reason why Standard
MJDI Files haven't completely replaced The
proprietary formats is because of perform-
ance, Each manufacturer uses his own
favourite methods of compressing and storing
data so it takes up a minimum of disk storage
space and can be read and written quickly.
The inevitable compromises necessary in de-
signing a standard format lead to much big-
ger files and slower file operations. The prop-
rietary formats are used for "internal" file
storage i.e. for data which is destined to be
read and written only by the same program.
Standard MIDI Files are produced when an
"external" file is needed, i.e. when a file is to
be "exported" to a different program. That
program then "imports" the file and converts
it to its own proprietary format for further
internal use.

Unfortunately, although described as a
"'standard", there are differences in impleme-
ntation of Standard MIDI Files between diffe-
rent application software packages, So be-
ware - a given combination of hardware and
software may not work exactly as you expect.

CROSS PLATFORM
DATA SHARING

A few years ago the Atari ST reigned sup-
reme as THE computer for creative music
applications. Thanks to Atari's indifference
and marketing failures the IBM PC and Apple

Macintosh are now probably more popular
music making platforms. Atari's use of the
IBM format (more or less) for the STs floppy
disks means that it's now very easy to trans-
fer MIDI files back and forth between ST, PC,
and Macintosh systems.

The PC can read ST disks, SO can therefore
read Standard MIDI Files without too much
trouble. Similarly, the ST can read Standard
MIDI Files produced on a PC, The Mac uses
Its own floppy disk format, but does have a
PC] compatibility function allowing it to cope
with PC disks too, This means the Mac can
also read ST Standard MIDI Files. This is
great if you regularly use several different
types of computer system (as I do) r giving you
great flexibility in where you work. But what if
you want to transfer MIDI data to some other
platform which can't read IBM format disks or
can't handle Standard MIDI Files? Well, life
suddenly becomes a little more complicated.

You may have an old hardware sequencer on
which youVe prepared some music and
stored on its built-in floppy disk drive, and
now you need to transfer it to someone else's
ST or PC so they can do some more work on
it. This sort of collaborative working is re-
quired all the time in the music making busi-
ness. The trouble is. your old sequencer saves
its data using a completely nun- standard disk
format which can be read only by other se-
quencers from the same manufacturer. A
similar problem occurs if you have MIDI files
on your beloved old Atari Classic h created
perhaps with MIDI Master, and now want to
move them onto another platform.

Usually the only common factor between the
platforms is that they both use MIDI, The
common link between them is therefore the
MIDI interface, so the solution involves con-
necting them together with MIDI cables. Now*
if you play back the sequence on your old
sequencer the MIDI data will be transmitted
down the cable to the ST. which will sec it as
any other incoming stream of MIDI data. The

Page eVs New Atari User

solution then, is to use another sequencer
program on the ST and record the incoming
MIDI data stream, ft sounds simple, but as
with most things there arc snags,

FIXING THE PROBLEMS

First, there's a question of timing. It's possi-
ble to make the transfer in the way just de-
scribed and the MIDJ data would play back
OK from the ST, but if you wanted to view the
data for editing purposes you'd have prob-
lems- This is because you couldn't guarantee
starting both sequencers up at exactly the
same time, so beat 1 of bar 1 on the sending
sequencer might occur slightly before beat 1
bar 1 of the receiving system. The result
viewed on a graphical score editing program
such as Notator is horrible , with odd fractions
of notes tied across beats and bar lines. Yon
could perhaps use the ST sequencer's quan-
tising facilities to drag the notes back into
time, but this is messy and may have other
side effects you don't want.

The answer lies in the use of MIDI synchron-
isation - as discussed a couple of issues back,
if you arrange for the sending sequencer to
act as the master, transmitting MIDI clock
messages with its data, and set the ST se-
quencer up as a slave so it locks onto them,
then the two systems will run in precise syn-
chronisation and beat 1 of bar 1 will occur at
exactly the same time on both. When you
view the results of the transfer with a score
editor It now looks fine from a timing point of
view, but you'll probably find youVe hit the
second snag.

Actually, we've already discussed this
second problem. You may discover that all the
data is stored as one track. In practice, you've
actually used the equivalent of a Standard
MIDI File Format 0 to transfer the data so
nave the same problem to solve If you need

the data separated out into its original tracks.
Just use the ST sequencer's split function - If
it's got one. Some ST sequencers are able to
do the separation "on the fly'\ They can look
at the channel information as the data is
received and route the MIDI events straight to
their appropriate tracks -just like a Standard
MIDI File Format 1 transfer. This is the per-
fect solution if your software supports it.

Unfortunately there arc a host of other little
snags that can crop up when transferring
data in this way. and we don't have space to
discuss them here. However, it is a viable
practical method and lYe actually used It In
anger on several occasions - but Standard
MIDI Files are usually much less hassle if you
can use them.

THE FINAL SEQUENCE

Well, that's about it as far as our detailed
exploration of MIDI goes. We've covered a lot
of ground since this series of articles began
about a year ago, and I hope you've found it
interesting and useful. I'm still fascinated by
the whole concept of MJDI and believe it's one
of the best thing that's happened to the music
world In the last 20 years. It's also about the
only application area that caused the Atari ST
to be taken seriously by the world at large, as
most professional music production Studios
haw had at least one ST system in their
inventory at some time. Without MIDI the ST
would have been just another 'home compu-
ter". More importantly, through MIDI creative
music making facilities have expanded
beyond recognition . and It's brought a host of
new music application tools to both amateur
and professional musicians. It has also been
responsible for the production, and perpetra-
tion onto an innocent public, of some truly
awful music ... but that's another topic entire-
ly! •

Page 6's New Atari User

II I! « H K m 0F PI B> II 11 12 Jl H JJ U ]? It If 20 21 33 II 2* H
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THE WORLD
OF BUDGIE

Budgie UK were the first
company to use the License
ware' concept They offered
their software disks at fixed
prices of £2, 75 - £395 which
allowed themselves, tfw au-
thor and the PD library a slice
of the cake. Most importantly*
payment ia the authors meant
a constantjlow of low-cost
quality software for the end
user.

Sadly, in late 1994 Budgie
UK decided to stop supporting
theAtad ST. However, they
did at ieast release all their
disks into the public domain
which assures the continued
availability of their current
range of titles. It also means
that all Budgie disks are now
the Same price as normal PD
disks,

PD Roundup this time offers
you a glimpse klto the world
of Budgie ',

by
Stuart
Murray

BINGO!

PRO BINGO
CALLER is a

professional
Bingo system
for your ST, It
brings the
game of Bingo
directly to
your home or
social group.

After an impressive title pic-
ture you are presented with
the main screen and asked
"Do you want to print any
Bingo Card books?". By fol-
lowing a number of prompts
you can use Pro bingo Caller
to print out your own game
books - very handy if you arc
planning a game of Bingo for
charity. Batch codes are
given to each book allowing
you to check that a winner is
using the correct book for a
particular session.

The main screen is well de-
signed and contains all the
necessary information for
Bingo calling. The numbers
(01-90] are displayed at the
top. When called they are
bordered so that claims may
be checked.

At the left-hand side of the
screen there are three boxes
displaying the amount of
Page G s New Atari User

"numbers called" t "call num-
ber showing"', and "last num-
ber called"'. Over on the right
arc another three boxes.
"Playing for" can be one line,
two lines or full house. This
serves as a reminder to the
caller of what is being played
for. The "batch code" box dis-
plays the 4 -digit security
code for the session. To
cheek which game is in prog-
ress, refer to the "playiog
game" box (e.g. "1 of 4"},
The large window at the cen
tre of the screen displays the
call number showing. At the
beginning of each game, a
large "EYES DOWN" is dis-
played. You then use the
Spacebar to call numbers.
Pro Ringo Caller is an effec-
tive, easy-to-use program. It
comes complete with a prin-
ted manual.

LET'S GET
DIZZY!

Budgie UK have also re-
leased quality educational
software, FUN TIME is a
collection of eight educational
games covering a variety of
Lopics. Tills disk is aimed at
children aged 5-8, The cen-
tral character of Fun Time is
a chap called Dizzy who
sports a blue head and red
nose!

The games are split into two
groups of four. The first
group consists of Shape Fun,
Keyboard Fun, Clock Fun
and Picture Fun.

Shape Fun is a simple cori -
centra lion game in which you
must match pairs of coloured
shapes hidden behind closed
doors. To open a door you
must click on it with the
mouse. There are three diffi-
culty levels which range from
three to seven pairs of
shapes.

Within Keyboard Fun there
are four games. You begin
With the Capital Letters
Game. A screen appears dis-
playing a snake* tree, wall
and keyboard. After a letter
scrolls smoothly along the
wall you must enter it on
your computer's keyboard.
The object of the game is lo
help the snake climb the tree
by correctly entering each
letter.

Next up is the Lowercase
Letters Game which plays in
the same manner. The Para-
chute Came Is a race against

l t f T-. nou?c

r D PL ftV ■

time. As a letter
falls from the sky
you must enter it
on your compu-
ter's keyboard be
fore It hits the
ground. The rate
of descent in-
crea scs afte r a
while and becom-
es very fasL The
final game within
Keyboard Fun is
called The Word
Game. A five letter
word is displayed
on the screen.
You must enter
this word correct-
ly to progress.
Capital and lower-
case letters are
mixed within each
word, e.g.
"WHIcH", If a
wrong letter is en-
tered, a magnet
ea rries i t off and
replaces it with
the correct letter.

Fun Time also
teaches children
how to tell the
time. In Clock Fun, a large
clock face displays a time
and the child must use the
mouse to enter this time from
a grid of numbers. A 24 -hour
clock lesson is also included.

The final game In the first
part of Fun Time is called
Picture Fun. It is a word/
picture identification game.
The screen displays an object
within a picture frame. There
is a ladder on cither side of
the frame, Dizzy Is on the
bottom rung of the left lad-
Page 6's New Atari User

DIZZH

FLINT 1 ME

■SI

innn

"TlgS 1

A I GMT MOUSC
FQH HFI, P

AM IPM

IftfrCLflOiS*
ENTER

iMWfffif n ffr ilCTBBi

CLOCK
| FUN

der. On the opposite ladder is
The Meante! You must help
Dizzy to reach the top of his
ladder by successfully iden-
tifying the object in the pic-
ture frame from a selection of
five words.

The other four games on the
Fun Time disk arc Money
Fun 1 & 2, Seasons and
Mouse Fun. They cover the
use of coins, the seasons of
the year and the ST mouse,
Seasons Fun is particularly
impressive,

Fun Time I* a disk packed
with fun educational soft-
ware. The eight games are
veiy user-friendly and the
hands-on approach to each
will hold the interest of the
child. The presentation Is col-
ourful and humorous. Good
value for money!

The Page 6 ST Library cata-
logue mentions that there arc
a few bugs In Fun Time
which cause the game to
hang up, 1 spent quite some
time examining the eight
games in detail and experi-
enced no such problem.
Apart from the odd icon sha-
dow and an annoy ingly Jerky
mouse pointer In a part of
Mouse Fun h my copy of Fun
Time played just fine.

BUDGIE
DISK MAGS

Maggie is a disk magazine
by The Lost Boys demo crew.
Each issue Is heavily influ-
enced by their love of prog-
ramming demos.

MAGGIE 7«0 begins with
two intro demos featuring -
scrolling messages* music,
starflelds. etc. The first demo
is not bad. The second isn't
up to much. There are
dozens of articles on the disk
covering a wide variety of
topics. There is an editorial a
show review plus lots of
cheats, reviews (including
Gods, Navy Seals and Team
Suzuki), interviews, program-
ming tips, jokes p etc, There is
also a PD section with re-

views of The Decade Demo,
Dark Side of the Spoon, The
Yo Demo and Tomorrows
World. A drop-down menu
format is used to select an
article. You can also alter the
background music, print
text, etc* The bonus demo on
Maggie 7.0 is The Flying
Brains which features spin-
ning brains in a 3D startle Id.
The function keys select the
presets and you can change
the music with the 0-9 keys.
A reasonable effort. Also on
the disk are some utilities in-
cluding a couple of virus
killers.

Maggie 7,0 is nothing spe-
cial. A few of the articles arc
interesting but most are the
usual demo-obsessed offer-
ings. The demos on the disk
are of average quality. The
virus killers may prove useful
to those without UVK. The
editor or Maggie 7.0 describes
it as "left overs" from pre-
vious issues. I tend to agree
with him.

Budgie UK also brought us
The Ledgcra - a disk maga-
zine by another demo crew
known as The Untouchables.
The Ledgers is very similar to
Maggie.

THE LEDGERS VOL.S fea-
tures a huge test section.
You select the type of article
by playing a platform game in
which you control a warrior

character with your Joystick
or keyboard. The graphics
arc of commercial quality. By
standing in front of a door
and pressing your Joystick
button (or hiLting the Space-
bar) you enter part of the text
section. These parts include
features, usuals. cheats,
jokes, reviews, serious stuff,
gallery, news, interviews, etc.
There are reviews of Midwin-
ter II and Stereo Master. The
cheats section features Ijotus
2, Turn can > Lemmings and
Rail Road Tycoon. There are
also short stories, poems,
pictures, etc. The software on
the disk includes a OIK Image
display er (mono), The C
Scries. DiskToolboK V2.03
and some Kick Off goals.
There seems to be more on
The Ledgers Vol.fi than on
Maggie 7.0. There are many
articles of interest, although
some of the jokes are terrible!
This disk mag is again heavi-
ly influenced by demos but
it's certainly worth a read.

GAMES US

Of course. Budgie were best
known for their high quality
games. Next time in ST PD
Roundup I'll take a look at
some truly great titles. Bud-
gie all the wayt

ROUNDUP RATINGS

ST1 008 PRO BINGO CALLER 78%

ST507 FUN TIME 86%

SPECIAL MAGGIE 7.0 59%

ST641 THE LEDGERS VOL,8 64%

Page 6 s New A tari User

contact ... contact ... contact ...

ST STUFF t Preefceys for ST, £10 * p&p;
Upgrade 10i 'h meg STE. FREE + 50p p*P
over 100 boxed ST games from £1 ; over
300 XLfXE disks and tapes. 1rom 25p Will
consider any swap I may have the Hem
you warn, send for 1 65 Steve. Flat 3, 50
The Sleyna. Bognor. Tel, 017S3345SQ

VARIOUS; ir^o d.sk drive, C25; lOlO
recorder, £5; all PSU leads Biz included
Magazines - Alari User Vols 1, 2, 3
COrrplete. Vol 4 No* 1-7. NAU 3&-44
int. 50p a ccoy r**s pap PAGE 6 INos
16, 17, 20. 211 , 22. 24 - 37 inc. 50p each
plus p£p: fiOOXL Dus1 cavers, new £1 75
(only 3); Disks - Zwk I and II. boxed, £5
mc pip; Books - Ccmpjle! s Second
Book of Alan. Vgc. £6; SAMS Program-
mers Reference Guide lor ih b 40uVSCO.
ES; Atari Sound amd Graphics, £5; Com-
pute 1 s Machine Language For Beginners
Vgc. £5. All books p)u4 £1.30 pip. Phone
Kent 01634 37S128

MAC 6S ASSEMBLER: Wanted MAC 65
cartridge or Alari Assembler cartridge
Your price paid, my old one kaput Also
manual (I I am Ducky. M. Tomlm. 26 Ma
lyons Fetmores, Basjldr>n. Essex S513
lPJ Tel 0£6$SS4991

GAMES WANTED: For 1he XL'XE - The
Eidolon, Autgduel, f Q , iha ST - The
Pawn, Guild of Tbieves Wil swap or
ever give you money! Sieve, Flat 3. ID
The Sieyne, Bognor. Tel 0978334S80

SOFTWARE: Warned lor (he XL ■ Page
Design* , Rubber Stamp. Typesetter (my
copy has been damaged), Superscript,
Viciagraph Hoi Wmcow, Print Shop, The
News Room. Painl-ooard, The Home
Acooun'ant, Book Keeper Kn, [ouch lab-
el, traJdsall. light-pen, R-Time . Sparta-
lJos X or any other add on. Please write
10 K Smnh. 90 Blythe Street, Wombell.
BarnsJey. S. YorKs. S73 BJF

FOR SALE

XE SYSTEM; Atari 13CXE Atari S00. 2 X
1050 d*k drives. lDTO cassette. De Re
Atari. Programmers Relerenca. manuals,
various software, books. maga7ines, dis-
kettes and disk boxes £100 O.V.n.o, {no
spJhs) Telephone 20S6B0

XLSVSTEMi &0OXL, 1D10, 10 games on
tape, tghi-gun (no ROM). 3 ROMs, joys-
tick. aH unboxed rx.1 with all manuaft a^d
cables except XL io Soarl E50. S00XL.
1050 jwslh wNe-protect swrlch), 30
games on disk jouch tablet (witti ROM),
al manuals ano cables axcepi XL to
Scart. Si 00 P&P inclusive WnlelO
Chrrsliae 'Red De»elis, 3£1 Rue Leon
Blum. 62232 Aiinezin. France

GAMES: ROMs' Flighl Smulator 2 fwrth
French manual). £20; Ga10 (and manualj.
CIS. One-on-One icomplelei. £5, Peanut
flor young), ts TAPES: Oriie s Fofiee,
Shamus. Vegas Jackpol, Speltoound, Cl
each. Chimera. Road Race. Z 2 each.
Zorro, Spy Hunter. Up n Down and Tap-
per. C3 each. Wrne to Chrtslian 'RBd'
Details. 321 Rue Leon Blum,, $3232
Annezin. France

HAR0WARE: 1020 (no box, needs new
pens). £$0; 1010 (as new in box), £15.
bad light-gun for spare, £5 WrMe "o
Christian 'Red' Delehs, 321 Rue Leon
Blum. 62232 Arvnez in. France

DISKS ANO BOX: Tandy 50 disk iocm-
able 5^i" disk hie m origi*\ai sealed wao
ping, CS. 30 Tandy Unversal cenMied dis-
Kettes., new and original wrapping, £5 50
■nc postage. Stan Shearing, l7Fair1ieki
Road, Southall. Middle U&l 2DQ, Tel
01 B1 674 4674

HARDWARE.-SOFTWAHE: &5XE w*h
XC12. powerpack. 1 Atan loyslick and
lead 1o TV, £36 inc. pip; 25fik flOOXi,
great working order, hardly used, E55 mc
pip; Small £600 console (TV lead only).
£6 ins pAp. SPECIAL • Barnyard Blast *
Alari lightgun (GWO), £12 ir*c p4p
SOFTWARE LIST (many tibes an cas&e1-
Ift'disk-'ROM) Tel. Brighlon <012?3-
813630

XL SYSTEM; aOQXL, 1050 drive bom
boxed, brand new. £7S; 1029 prints
good condflion. £40; several cassette
decks, £$, cassette collection approx. 80
mint condition., £40 All psus p&p. Harry.
30 FramfieW Road, London. N5 1UU Tel
01&1 S01 2969 Bvenings

GAMFS: 30* cassette games all Origin-
als. £25. 10 dia*. games, £20 inc. posl-
age Phone Jason on 0778 4264U9

WANTED

SOFTWARE: Lunar Lander |AIJ.
Fa1 horns *0 Lcet Tomn. Maze EncOufi-
ler, Nevarending Slory. Tumblebugs
[Datasc-tt). Rjcochai. Summer Games 2
Winter Games |Epyx), Ftomox carts.
Squish 'eml, Worm War 1 .(Sirius}, Ghost-
ly Manor. Jet (Sublogic}, Dodge Racer
I Synapse). Ong nals only please. Pe.-tvns
n Europe and the US also wanted.
Hease wile 10 B. Mouchmmo, 1 Hue
Lyautey, 92340 Hourg-La-Reine, France

ADDRESS: Where could I fmd the kind of
scanner 10 run with a or^ter? Also does
anyone have a Voice Masie* 10 selP H
yoo have it or can help me. good 1 Write
:o Crvri&lief fled' Delalt, 32" 1 Hue lean
Slum, 62232 Annezio, France

BASIC CART: Has anybody a spare Re-
vision C Calndge 1or sale^ Please tele-
phone Oennis on 01 722 744162 or write -
15, St. Martins Close, Bariord St. Martin.
Salrsbury SP3 4 AX

GAMES: Winier 0lyrnp.ee AH. Rep n
Wrosik* Beach Head II, Cvest for Mal-
tese Falcon Also any PAGE S Issues 1
to 1 5 only. Phone Jaton on 077B 4264M

PENPALS

COMING BACK I Atler a VERY long
delay I would now hhe 10 re-esiabhsh
oon'act with my nvch va'-jed Atari fl-tfl
f Mends out there. Let me know where you
are so I may contad you. John Stecyk, 2
Wugga Courl. Ashwood. Victoria 3t47,
Auslralia

CONTACTS; Atari Classic programmer
with his own programs lor distribution
seeKs conlacf with other Atari fi-bit users
tor dei.TilK please write to Mr „ohn Fos-
ketl, 26 Auckland Road, Kingston-upon-
Tharrifts. Surrey, Kl 33Cd (England)

CONTACTS: Contact wanted with any
H on :.'set a r ound 1he world to swap hns.
tps, anylMng Atari S-Qi1 Please write 1o
M. Tomlin,26 Mafyons, Felmores, Basil-
don. Essex SS13 1PJ. Tel 0266 554991

PEN PALS: To keep « louch wilh other
users to exchange ideas, programming
Btc I have an rnlerest in prograAvnng,
intarfac/xj my own exlras, Art packages,
DTP Please wr«e to K Smith. SO Blylhe
Street. Wombeii, Barnssey. S Yortts S73
BJF

FREE TO SUBSCRIBERS

The CONTACT column is Inex oT charge to subscribers who wish
to srll thrir equipment tir ronlacl nthrr rraiicrs. Sf^icc is 3lrr.it.tcd
so wc request Lb^t entries be kept as short as possible. Extrtrtie-
ly loi>^ cnlriea may be heavily edited or ignored. Send your
CONTACT nolicr on a separalr shrrt of paocr lo:

CONTACT, PAGE 6 PUBLISHTNG. STAFFORD, ST16 1BR

FOR SALE ... WANTED ... PEN PALS ... ADVICE ... HELP

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